“Parents Take French State to Court Over Chronic Teacher Absences”

After the first collective action carried out in 2022, parents of students are renewing their cry of alarm: they are taking the State to court. Faced with the lack of replacements for absent teachers, a collective launched, Monday, May 22, an action before the administrative courts for non-compliance with state obligations in education. “The #OnVeutDesProfs platform launched this initiative to force Emmanuel Macron’s government to react to the recurring problem of teacher absences. They consider that the State is failing in its educational mission”, reports the Spanish daily The newspaper.

The parents are thus asking for compensation of 10 euros for each hour of lessons lost in secondary school, 50 euros for a day in primary school, as well as 500 euros in damages for moral damages. “The non-replacement of teachers is a chronic problem in France – but also in other European countries – and it is explained by the lack of teachers”, comments the Catalan newspaper.

The salaries of French teachers have in fact decreased in relation to the evolution of the minimum salary, leading to “a loss of economic attractiveness of the profession” and recruitment difficulties. According to the Minister of Education, Pap Ndiaye, fifteen million hours are lost each year in France because of teachers who are not replaced.

To deal with this issue, Emmanuel Macron announced the increase in the National Education budget to the tune of 3.6 billion euros per year in order to reassess the salaries of teachers. During his speech on April 17, the Head of State promised “the systematic replacement of teachers“absent from the start of the next school year.