By Amandine flour
Published on 10 Mar 21 @ 11:30
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By the next school year, nine primary classes should close their doors in Nancy. An announcement far from satisfying part of the City’s municipal council, which adopted a motion on Monday, March 8, 2021, and asked the academic director of the national education services to review his copy.
The City of Nancy asks the academic director of the national education services to reconsider his decision to close a class in nursery schools with the most busy numbers, to re-examine the situation of the Jean Jaurès school and to take into consideration the request for a moratorium on schools in the Educational City of the Haye plateau, addressed to the Minister of National Education.
Overcrowded classes
A total of nine classes from nine different schools are involved. Six kindergarten classes are registered in the Jean Jaurès, Montet, Trois Maisons, Michelot, Roberty and Placieux schools. But also three elementary classes in Clémenceau, Buffon and Moselly schools.
According to the City of Nancy, these classes should close for reasons of reductions in numbers at the start of the 2021 school year. A problematic situation since, who says closure of classes, says greater concentration of students for one and the same teacher.
In nursery schools, the reception capacities of toddlers (2-3 years old) would be called into question. In three nursery schools affected by these decisions, in Jean Jaurès, Trois Maisons and Roberty, these closures would bring the average class size respectively to 26.3, 26.3 and 28.5 students. These reception conditions are not favorable to adapted and quality teaching and learning for very young children.
Degraded teaching conditions?
At the same time, the town hall took the opportunity to draw the attention of the academic director of the national education services to the specific case of the Jean Jaurès elementary school.
The City denounces the abolition of a position allocated under the “bilingual English immersion” device, supposed to allow the opening of an additional class.
A class opening is planned at the Jean Jaurès elementary school at the start of the 2021 school year. It will have as a corollary the elimination in this establishment of the post allocated within the framework of the “bilingual English immersion” system, whereas there is a dynamic around the teaching of languages from elementary school, particularly driven since 2012 in this establishment, with a stake on the continuity of these teachings between elementary and middle school.
A better supervision rate
Asked by Lorraine News, Philippe Tiquet, academic director of the departmental services of National Education, returned to the situation.
According to him, between 2018 and the start of the 2021 school year, Meurthe-et-Moselle will have lost 3,272 students. “Despite everything, 68 positions have been created and schools in municipalities with more than 5,000 inhabitants (excluding priority education) will increase from an average number of students from 23.55 at the start of the 2020 school year to 23.57 at the start of the 2021 school year. », He specifies.
Regarding the more specific case of the city of Nancy, Philippe Tiquet maintains that “the staffing rates are increasing” like the department. “In Nancy schools, still excluding priority education, the average number of students per class was 24.8 in 2019, 24.3 in 2020 and will be 24.5 in 2021, after the closure of classes”.
The case of the Roberty school under study
Regarding the establishments directly impacted by the class closure, the academic director of the departmental services of National Education is reassuring and affirms that the number of children per class “will remain within the standards of education”, in particular “priority” when it does.
It also states that closing a class at theRoberty kindergarten is not yet acted upon. “We are uncertain about the numbers. The closure is to be reviewed. This is typically a situation that will be studied when the adjustment measures begin. ”
“A growing workforce”
Asked about the abolition of a post allocated within the framework of the “bilingual English immersion” device at the Jean Jaurès school, Philippe Tiquet also wanted to be clear.
When the modern language immersion project was set up, an additional position (competent in languages) had been installed, taking into account the fact that not all teachers had language skills, to intervene in support of teachers who were not. competent. At the start of the 2020 school year, we therefore had 9 classes (7 teachers with the language skills necessary for the immersion project and 2 without them) + 1 additional teacher also with these skills. For the start of the 2021 school year, we are opening a class given the increase in numbers, the school will therefore have 10 “ordinary” classes. The 2 teachers who did not have the language skills will be gone.
According to Philippe Tiquet, there is therefore no question of penalizing students for language learning but, simply, “the additional post is no longer justified, it is deleted”. On the other hand, it ensures the sustainability of “bilanguage positions in all classes”.
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