National Education Under Threat: The Crisis of Absent Teachers and Underused Replacements

“It’s a misunderstanding”

They are called TZR teachers, for “replacement zone holders”. A pool from which National Education, often short of teachers, could draw at any time. But she doesn’t do it. Bérengère, a math replacement, a subject lacking teachers, has not worked since the beginning of September.

“It was funny, a week before the start of the school year, to sleep in and see all my teacher friends starting up again. That’s not what we expect from life. It’s being useful, it’s “is to occupy your days. By being a replacement, even if you are not called, you are still paid every month. Clearly, I am paid for doing nothing”, she laments on the microphone of Europe 1.

A feeling of uselessness shared by another young teacher in Normandy, who only worked three months last year. “We have the competition. For us, our objective for the most part is to teach, therefore not to be solicited. It’s true that it’s very, very frustrating. And that’s the case on many positions, that is to say that there are a lot of TZRs without positions. Why? Because there are also a lot of contract workers who are sent to the positions instead of teachers. It’s a misunderstanding”, notes the young teacher.

These contract workers are not qualified, an absurd situation. The official reason? Full substitutes cannot refuse a position. They are therefore “kept in reserve” for cases where there is absolutely no one else available. This, however, leads to demotivation and even resignations.