The deadline may seem remote, yet it is good to approach the start of the September 2021 school year that the rector of the academy of Créteil (Seine-Saint-Denis, Val-de-Marne, Seine-et-Marne), Daniel Auverlot, held a press conference this Wednesday afternoon. An appointment organized while the concern is more acute than ever within the educational community. Absent teachers, health protocol deemed ineffective, fear of dropping out of school… Parents and teachers are worried about the future of the students. The opportunity for the boss of the academy to take stock of the current year and announce certain measures for the start of the 2021 school year.
A stable school level at primary level
No, the confinement did not affect the educational level of elementary school students or barely. In any case, this is what the rector says with regard to the results posted by schoolchildren in the assessments of CP and CE1 in French and mathematics organized in September 2020. “One would have thought that the crisis had lowered their level. However, these results show that it is barely below that of 2019, and identical to that of 2018. If we observe them at the academic level, we notice that our students are below the national average, whereas if we focuses on establishments classified as Priority Education Network (REP) +, they are above. This shows that the efforts made on PWRs are starting to pay off, ”said Daniel Auverlot, who did not comment on the results of the 6th grade evaluations.
Many teachers not replaced
This is one of the recurring problems of the Créteil academy: the non-replacement of absent teachers. In La Courneuve and Noisy-le-Sec in Seine-Saint-Denis or even in Créteil in Val-de-Marne… Many schools have been without a teacher for several weeks, or even months. “Between staff in contact or fragile cases, the situation in terms of replacements is more degraded this year,” recognizes the rector, who specifies having recruited 4,000 contract workers as he had already done last year. No additional means were therefore given by the Ministry of National Education to compensate for the more numerous absences this year. The rector says all the same that he will follow the situation closely in the coming weeks “even if it means exceeding the authorized budget”. In the meantime, many situations remain unresolved.
The à la carte school divides
According to Daniel Auverlot, a hundred establishments of the academy have made arrangements so “that the pupils can study in all serenity”. Since the beginning of November, the ministry has in fact allowed high schools to accommodate teenagers in half-groups to limit mixing. An à la carte school that worries students, according to Mathieu Logothetis, academic co-secretary of the Snes-FSU teachers’ union. “By relying on school heads to set rules rather than imposing a national framework, the ministry has created disparities. In more affluent neighborhoods, classes often continued only face-to-face under pressure from parents. This was not the case in the more popular districts, where they mobilize less easily. Suddenly, young people in these neighborhoods fear that this difference will be taken into account by higher education establishments when they register on Parcoursup. (Editor’s note: the higher education registration platform). »
The first screening operations
When the Christmas holidays return, the risks of the virus spreading at school are on everyone’s mind. In Choisy-le-Roi (Val-de-Marne), the Marcel-Cachin school group has also just closed on Tuesday and “until further notice” after the detection of two cases of Covid-19 among staff and the inventory of 40 contact cases. Accused of not sufficiently testing staff and students, the National Education has started to deploy screening operations within the academy before the holidays. “A dozen establishments have benefited from it before the holidays and there have been others since the start of the school year,” explains the rector. These are high schools chosen in consultation with the Regional Health Agency in areas where the virus is circulating more actively. “On Tuesday, around a hundred people were tested at the Lycée Mozart du Blanc-Mesnil (Seine-Saint-Denis). “All the results came back negative”, specifies Daniel Auverlot.
340 full-time equivalents more next year in the 1st degree
“We are opening these FTEs, while school demographics will drop next year in the 1st degree,” said the rector. These posts will in particular be used to encourage class discharges for school directors and continue to split the large sections in the nursery schools located in REP + in Seine-Saint-Denis. “A device already operational in Val-de-Marne and Seine-et-Marne, which” will be deployed in a maximum of schools in 93, “said Antoine Chaleix, the academic director of the department. For its part, the Snuipp-FSU 93 – union of 1st degree teachers – judges precisely these FTEs “insufficient” to respond to the deployment of large split sections in the 93. On the secondary side, it’s a cold shower. Despite the increase in the number of students, no significant announcements were made. Mathieu Logothetis fears an even “drier” education system next year.
New boarding schools of excellence
Three new boarding schools of excellence should open at the start of the September academic year. One in each department of the academy: at the Feyder high school in Epinay-sur-Seine (Seine-Saint-Denis), at François-Arago in Villeneuve-Saint-Georges (Val-de-Marne) and at the professional high school Benjamin- Franklin in La Rochette (Seine-et-Marne). “This will be the first boarding school of professional excellence,” explains Daniel Auverlot.
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