“We must declare a state of school emergency”

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Grandstand. The years pass, the observations follow one another, but nothing helps: the French school of today arouses disenchantment among students as well as among education staff or parents. For this new school year, all the indicators alert us to a generalized state of crisis in the school sector: wave of resignations, vacant positions, staff morale at half mast… This unprecedented situation leads us to contravene commitments made in 1989, during the ratification of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

First of all, articles 28 and 29 devoted to the right to education and personal development of children are not applied. The lack of teachers and AESH [accompagnants d’élèves en situation de handicap] does not allow children to benefit from this right. The ministry is not able to ensure that as many teachers as necessary are present in front of the students, the profession no longer attracts.

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This lack of political will and structural reforms leads to the development of emergency measures for each new school year, such as the scandalous example of the “job dating” organized by the rectorate of Versailles which weaken the education system without reforming it. In this observation, we cannot forget the French education system abroad which is just as sacrificed, the provision and secondment of teachers having become increasingly restricted and difficult for lack of holders.

Institutional abuse

As for the recent announcements on the salaries of novice teachers, they will not be enough if all the grids are not redesigned and if the conditions for exercising the profession do not change. For this, it is not necessary to convene yet another consultation with the educational community as suggested by the ministry since certain solutions have already been known for a long time: allow teachers to spend more time with each student, reduce the number of students per class, offer in-service training modules as closely as possible to teachers’ demands, support them when they are under external pressure and stop the proliferation of cavalier reforms. The government is responsible and the minister’s recent announcements are far from responding to the unprecedented crisis we are going through!

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