Pap Ndiaye, an education minister put to the test by the shortage of teachers

The exercise is unprecedented, and the symbol unequivocal: a few days before the start of the school year, Emmanuel Macron decided to launch the school year himself by bringing together the rectors of the academy in the Sorbonne, Thursday, August 25 in the morning. A first. During this meeting, which comes the day before the back-to-school press conference of his new Minister of Education, Pap Ndiaye, the president must return “on its ambition for the school and will present the challenges of the new method for national education, like the experiment carried out within the framework of Marseille en grande”specifies the Elysée.

A way for Emmanuel Macron to reaffirm that he has placed educational subjects at the heart of this second five-year term – he who promised the revaluation of teachers’ salaries, a “new pact” with this profession, “great consultation” on the school which must take place this fall… A way, also, to position his new minister before his first return to school, while the difficult files accumulate. The first of them being, of course, the crisis of the teaching vocation, the consequences of which could hamper the realization of the roadmap set by Emmanuel Macron.

Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers Why the teacher recruitment system is no longer working

Because this start of the school year presents a first puzzle to solve: while there were 4,000 teachers missing (including 1,700 in primary school) out of a total of 880,000 at the end of the various spring recruitment competitions, National Education can she hammer that there will be a teacher in front of each class at the start of the school year? Questioned by the National Assembly in early August, Pap Ndiaye recognized a situation “more difficult than usual” and recourse to contractors “more important than[il] don’t wish it[ait] ».

Read also: More than 4,000 unfilled teaching positions in competitions in 2022

Concern in the academies

The institution assumes the increased use of contract workers, whose express training must begin on Thursday – and ensures that it does everything possible to fill the last gaps. Traveling to the rectorate of Créteil, on August 23, the Minister of Education wanted to be more reassuring than during his hearing before the Assembly. He even described a situation “comparable or even slightly better than last year at the same time”, in this academy facing a chronic problem of recruitment – ​​and therefore, by extension, of replacing absentees in the weeks to come.

“The Minister has rather a good starting credit with the profession, notes an academic accustomed to the Rue de Grenelle, but there is a big risk that this capital will be lost if the start of the school year goes badly, and in particular if there is a lack of teachers trained in front of the students. » Because this is one of the fears of the unions, which reject the expression “a teacher in front of each class”, taken up by the minister in front of the cameras, on August 23, by pointing to a much more contrasting reality on the ground.

You have 66.89% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.