The pupils of 3rd pay the lack of teachers and the lack of substitutes in the discipline. If a contractor has since been appointed, future patent candidates have not yet caught up in physics. The subject is on the Dasen’s desk.
In two and a half months, they will be sitting in a room to take their first national exam: the college diploma. Among the four written tests, they will be assessed on their knowledge of science. An exercise dreaded by the students of the cape town college who, since November, have accumulated delays in learning physics. Between the absence of full professors, the lack of substitutes, the impasse seems to have been made on subjects that are nevertheless compulsory.
A judged situation “unacceptable” by the parents of pupils who, as early as January, raised their fears with the administration of the establishment. In return, they got the promise of imminent solutions. But it was without counting on new waltzes of substitutes. Within the management of the college, the principal has changed, inheriting, only a short month ago, the file to be managed. Result, it remains to catch up with the program of a year in a few weeks to erase the repeated dysfunctions. A requirement that seems to have its limits.
“You can’t make up for a year in 9 hours!”
“Since the start of the All Saints holidays, the full professor of physics and technology has been absent. In February, a replacement was assigned to the post. He himself was absent for a time due to Covid, but since then the children resumed classes only and technology”, explain Antoinette Granini and Rachida Fity, two parent delegates, who exposed the problem last week in the office of the academic director of the national education services. According to them, the physics program was not addressed. The parents of pupils then defended the principle of continuous monitoring to make up for these shortcomings. However, it is difficult to apply a local specificity to a national examination. The proposal therefore obtained an end of inadmissibility. The other option suggested by the academic management consists of a catch-up course spread over nine hours during school holidays, after school days or remotely on Wednesdays. “You don’t make up for a year of physics and chemistry in nine hours.” launch the parents of pupils who consider underestimated the volume of hours proposed. Another difficulty raised: school transport.
“95% of Cape Town college students are transported, so how can we consider classes on Thursday evenings or during the holidays when parents are working, especially at the start of the season?”, continues a mother of a student before adding: “At what time will the children of Canari or Ersa arrive home?”
The situation of the college in Cape Town and the distances traveled daily by the students are indeed worrying families. They recommend favoring these subjects instead of planned school outings or courses that are not on the patent program. Discussions are launched but difficult for the time being to agree on the right formula. “We were received by the Dasen who heard the demands of the parents. Even if the proposals made to replace these hours are not ideal, they at least have the merit of existing”, insists Gilles Zerafa, the new principal of the college in office since March 14. Indeed, as Bruno Benazech pointed out, the Dasen, “several methods are proposed to carry out the number of missing hours in order to complete the program. According to the academic inspector who accompanied the contractor, he would miss nine hours but we are prepared to go up to three hours if necessary. The situation is accompanied, he confides, wanting to be reassuring.
“A breach of equality in education”
This particular problem seems to highlight a deeper malaise, that of the lack of teachers in National Education and the difficulty of having recourse to trained replacements.
The solution: play the contractual card on one-off assignments. But the geographical remoteness of Cape Town accentuates the identified situation.
“This is a problem that will become recurring. In view of the kilometers to travel to come to the College of Cape Town, the contract workers do not take the job. In this specific case, we observe a break in equality in education and this is abnormal”, regrets Anne-Laure Santucci, the mayor of Luri and also territorial councilor Femu a Corsica, who will address the subject, Friday, in various questions during the community council of Cap. For elected officials, in the long term, it is the maintenance of rural colleges that is in danger. “Parents are already planning to enroll their children in establishments in Bastia. While it is necessary to succeed in defending the rural environment”, insists Rogliano’s first deputy, Hervé Orsi.
The subject is on the table. If it is initially a question of school program to be solved, the file could overflow on a more political question, that of the equal opportunities.
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