The Minister of Education Gabriel Attal said Friday that there remained “around 200 teaching positions” to be filled in middle and high schools, while the unions reported a more worrying situation, with absences in almost half of the schools. establishments.
“As I speak to you, around 200 positions remain to be filled in secondary education”, a figure “to be compared to the 500,000 secondary education teachers, so we see that it is less of 0.1% of the positions that remain to be filled”, declared Mr. Attal, during a trip to a middle school and a primary school in Eure-et-Loir.
“The subject that has been highlighted by the union organizations is teachers who have been assigned to a position – which is therefore filled – but who are absent at the start of the school year, either for a long period of time, or for a short term”, estimated Mr. Attal.
“That is obviously a major objective: to reduce absences as much as possible, particularly those due to administrative organization, and to provide replacements for absences which cannot be avoided,” he added.
In primary schools, “155 vacant positions” remain to be filled, those close to Gabriel Attal said.
According to a survey published Monday by the Snes-FSU, the leading secondary education union, conducted in 508 establishments, there is an average shortage of “at least one teacher in 48% of middle and high schools”. For the ministry, however, this study “does not distinguish vacancies which are linked to unfilled positions from those linked to a one-off absence of teachers”, which are intended to be “resolved or replaced quickly”.
In another survey published on Wednesday, SNPDEN-Unsa, the leading union of school heads, notes that more than one teacher is missing in 58% of middle and high schools after September 1.
Emmanuel Macron had assured a few days before the start of the school year that the promise of “a teacher in front of each class” at the start of the school year would be “kept”. On the evening of the start of the school year, Gabriel Attal was more nuanced, conceding that “we could have difficulties here or there”, particularly in middle and high school.
“What is certain is that it is a phenomenon that exists, and families say so” that “there are many absences which are not replaced”, recognized Mr. Attal . “This is a subject on which I am determined to move forward.”
15/09/2023 15:00:19 – Tremblay-les-Villages (France) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
