Classrooms are emptying, and we are not talking about students going on vacation.

Maths, German, letters, or even school teachers, teacher competitions are no longer full, a consequence of a reform of their organization but also of a crisis in the attractiveness of the profession.

“The situation for the next school year is worrying (…) Staff will be lacking for the 2022 school year”, sum up teachers’ unions in a letter sent Wednesday to Elisabeth Borne, the new Prime Minister.

The figures are chilling: 816 candidates eligible for 1,035 positions in external mathematics Capes (compared to 1,706 eligible last year), 83 eligible for 215 positions in German (179 in 2021), 60 for 134 positions in Classics, 720 for 755 positions in Modern Literature…

Ile-de-France primary schools in need

This situation is particularly marked in certain disciplines but also certain academies, such as those of Ile-de-France for the first degree, where recruitment is traditionally more difficult.

There are thus 180 eligible for 219 teaching positions in schools in Paris, 521 for 1,079 in Créteil and 484 for 1,430 positions in Versailles.

The rector of Versailles Charline Avenel also announced this week a vast recruitment operation of more than 2,000 contract workers for the next school year, including 700 primary school teachers and 600 teachers in colleges and high schools.

“Are you looking for a job, a new job that makes sense?

The Versailles Academy is recruiting, ”she explains in a video on social networks.

Clockwork orange alert

The Ministry of National Education, however, wants to be reassuring.

Jean-Michel Blanquer recently affirmed that there would be "the necessary pool" of mathematics teachers at the start of the next school year in high schools, leaving the unions doubtful.

“We are talking about a breeding ground.

(…) So much the better if it's true, but we don't know what we're talking about, ”commented this week Bruno Bobkiewicz, secretary general of the main union of school heads (SNPDEN).

For the ministry, this drop is essentially cyclical, due to the reform of teacher recruitment competitions, which could previously have been passed from Master 1 and now take place in Master 2. Some of the Master 2 students have already taken them. succeeded last year, hence a year of transition.

“It brings us to a mechanical drop which was anticipated”, assured Vincent Soetemont, director general of human resources of the ministry.

No red alert therefore, just an orange signal, temporary and not serious, like a bad measurement.

The remuneration of a teacher, "it does not make anyone dream"

But for the unions, the reasons for this disaffection are also deeper, linked in particular to the low salary attractiveness of education.

"There are two tracks: that of the salary question and that of the conditions of entry into the profession", with some of the full-time trainees in front of the classes at the start of the school year.

"And it is only by answering these questions that we will restore the attractiveness of the teaching profession," said Sophie Vénétitay, general secretary of Snes-FSU, the main union for colleges and high schools.

“There are many explanations.

Inevitably, when today we have a degraded image of the teaching profession because of the ambient discourse, that does not make anyone dream", judges Bruno Bobkiewicz, who also points out "the level of recruitment at Bac + 5", not necessarily in adequacy with “the level of remuneration at the start of the career”.

"For scientists, even if it means choosing between a job as an engineer where you can easily earn 3,000 euros and a job as a teacher where you will always be confined to 2,000 euros, the choice is made quite easily", summarizes Flavie, 23, who passed the Modern Literature Capes last year.

“It is certain that the reform has contributed to the fact that there are fewer candidates”, analyzes this trainee teacher.

But it also highlights an older “crisis”, linked to “full of constraints, in particular financial” and to the “lack of recognition” of the profession.

Faced with this shortage, the unions called on the Prime Minister to take “urgent” measures, including “an ambitious salary increase”.

For Guislaine David, secretary general of the SNUipp-FSU (first primary union), there is also an "urgent need for an exceptional competition" which would be added to the current session.

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  • Education

  • National Education

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  • Jean-Michel Blanquer

  • Elisabeth Borne