This is not a children’s story. In the beginning was Luc Chatel, who sold shampoo at L’Oréal. Consecrated Minister of National Education in 2009, he was joined by a director general of school education, real n ° 2 of the ministry, from the seraglio, former rector, anointed with a perfect knowledge of the system: Jean-Michel Blanquer . This pair of august and white clowns gave birth at the start of the 2010 school year to a “reform” of teacher training consisting in throwing in front of the students, without any other form of trial or – above all – training, students now recruited at bac + 5 and having just passed the hurdle of competitions. It was ended, without flowers or wreaths, after 2012.
When history repeats itself, they say, it is in the form of a farce. Not sure that the one preparing for the start of the September 2022 school year will make many laughs. As every year on the eve of the holidays, the ministry revealed, on December 15, its quantified forecasts for the distribution of resources and the conditions for this future return to school. And despite the balls and sparkling garlands, the attentive eye can easily distinguish … the return of the 2010 reform! Under the bolduc, Father Fouettard.
Staff, contractors and students all in the same bag
However, let it be said: this return will be, as in fairy tales, perfectly perfect. In primary, theoretically a priority, the number of job creation amounts to… zero. But the ministry matters “A further increase of 1 965 teaching aids ”. Christmas magic? Nay. The main explanation is the large (and expected) drop in student numbers, with 67,000 fewer children. This makes some 2,500 positions available. These will be used, for about 1,300 of them, to slightly improve the service discharges of principals. The others, i.e. 1,200, will have to complete the duplication of the major sections in priority education, which will probably not be enough for the task and will lead to further deterioration in the other levels, from CE2 to CM2, where we will be requested – despite the Covid – to pile up like gift packages at the foot of the tree.
So much for the “Primary school priority”. Secondary school has suffered 7,900 job cuts since 2017, despite increasing student numbers. They were to be again in 2022, 24,000 students, according to official forecasts. Yes, but no: it is now a… drop of 6,600 pupils that is expected. And despite 410 posts still deleted, “The second degree will thus benefit from 1,615 additional full-time equivalents”, triumphs the Rue de Grenelle. You have to tear the wrapping paper to discover the trick: by no longer talking about positions but of “Teaching aids” and D’ “Full-time equivalents”, the ministry puts in the same bag permanent positions, overtime (which are not all used, due to lack of personnel), contractual, and even… the students who have just graduated from the competition, who will no longer be in part-time training, but full time in front of the students. As under Luc Chatel. The string is as big as a hangman’s rope. Let us not forget, in passing, the educational assistants (AED, ex-supervisors), who will now be able to replace teachers on short absences.
There is a lack of 7,000 nursing positions in education
At the bottom of Father Blanquer’s hood, there are nevertheless 300 new posts of principal educational advisers, but which will be primarily intended for very Blanquériens “boarding schools of excellence”, and 50 posts of nurses or social workers. Let us recall that the Snics-FSU, union of nurses of the National Education, estimates that there is a shortage… 7,000.
Finally, 60 inspector posts dedicated to controlling family education and private schools outside the contract will be created. The idea is not that bad. Because, when the unions question the ministry on the astounding drop in enrollment (im) planned in secondary education, the only hypothesis timidly advanced is that of an increasingly massive flight of students… towards the private sector. Those who believe that the entire educational policy of Jean-Michel Blanquer aims, precisely, to promote the private, will not be surprised. And all the more worried.
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