Jean-Michel Blanquer, January 14, 2021 in Paris (illustration).

-

Thomas COEX / POOL / AFP

  • Invited by France Inter on Tuesday, Jean-Michel Blanquer defended his strategy of creating more posts in the first degree to give priority to fundamental knowledge. 

  • According to the Minister of National Education, this strategic choice would not be made to the detriment of secondary education, despite the announced elimination of 1,800 positions for the start of the 2021 school year.

  • These cuts would in fact be offset by the overtime provided for in the government's budget.

    But these are far from being fully consumed, in addition to damaging the quality of education, believe the teachers' unions.

"Blanking lies.

"Did the Minister of National Education expect to see such a hashtag emerge on Twitter on Tuesday, shortly after his appearance in the morning of France Inter?

From health measures taken in schools to fight against the spread of Covid-19 to questions relating to the computer premium for teachers, the words of Jean-Michel Blanquer have prompted Internet users to denounce, through these keywords, its supposed intox.

In particular on the question of the means allocated by the ministry to education in nursery and primary. 

. @ jmblanquer: "In terms of budget, for 4 years, it is on the 1st degree that I have put the most posts. Is it to the detriment of the 2nd degree? No" # le79Inter pic.twitter.com/ BzDdjkk5QE

- France Inter (@franceinter) March 2, 2021

“In terms of budget, for four years, it is on the first degree that I have put the maximum increases, especially in terms of posts.

It may seem surprising, especially because there are fewer students in the first degree each year, yet we are putting more positions.

Quite simply because the priority to fundamental knowledge and the catching up necessary for the first degree are achieved.

But is it to the detriment of the second degree, as I sometimes hear?

No !

“, Thus supported the Minister of Education at the microphone of the radio.

"Of course, it is correct to say that there are sometimes job cuts [in colleges and high schools, but] we compensate them in overtime," he said in this regard, while the first degree should have 56,000 fewer students in 2021, and that secondary education expects to accommodate 43,518 more.

FAKE OFF

Contacted by

20 Minutes

, the Ministry of National Education confirms that the figures put forward at the end of December for the start of the 2021 school year remain valid: "It is still planned to create 2,489 primary school jobs and a reduction of 1,800 equivalent jobs. full time (FTE) in secondary.

This will however be compensated by 1,847 FTE in annualized overtime (HSA).

"

What does such “compensation” mean in concrete terms?

Sophie Vénétitay, deputy general secretary of the Snes-FSU union, explains: "The ministry is eliminating positions provided by natural persons, adults present to supervise the students, to replace them with overtime which is distributed among the teachers still in post. .

For example, the abolition of a post in industrial sciences in an establishment is supposed to be compensated by colleagues in the same discipline, who must divide up additional teaching hours.

"

"Not all overtime is consumed, far from it"

“The ministry's argument is that students do not see their teaching hours decrease since these cuts would be offset by annualized overtime.

But all the extra hours provided for in the national education budget are not consumed, far from it, ”she laments.

In a November 2020 report, the Senate Culture, Education and Communication Committee made the same observation about HSAs: “Budgeted overtime is not consumed.

Thus, 12.3 million euros of appropriations for overtime were not consumed in 2019. ”

And this situation is not surprising, according to Sophie Vénétitay: “It is humanly impossible to maintain, since the teachers are supposed to integrate teaching hours for these additional classes into their timetable, which leaves them less time. time to devote to their own classes.

The ministry knows this very well but continues the same policy.

It is a sleight of hand on his part because it is not a real compensation.

So Jean-Michel Blanquer's assertion really needs to be qualified.

"

Overtime which represents "nearly 9% of teaching hours"

The Senate committee did not say anything else in its fall 2020 report. "In establishments, because of part-time teachers and those whose state of health does not allow them to work overtime, the envelope of HSA often covers only half of the teachers in the subject concerned.

In fact, it is not uncommon to ask a staff to perform three or even four HSAs ”, underlined its authors.

And to add that since the finance bill (PLF) 2019, the ministry has used "constantly" these overtime as compensation for job cuts, to the point that they represent "today nearly 9% of teaching hours.

"

This strategy - which the ministry justifies, according to the senatorial report, by the anticipation of the drop in the number of posts required in secondary education from 2023 - also has a concrete impact on the way of teaching.

“The increase in the number of students and the elimination of posts has the primary effect of eliminating half-group lessons.

Four hours of French in half a group thus become four hours in the whole class, which represents a clear deterioration in teaching conditions, ”underlines the Deputy Secretary General of SNES-FSU.

And if the Ministry of Education admits "that this global rebalancing [of secondary], linked to a very variable demography from one academy to another, can give rise to increases or decreases in the overall resources of teaching hours. teaching according to the academies ", Jean-Michel Blanquer himself recognized, on France Inter, the difficulty of pursuing such a strategy in the long term:" It is true that the reductions of posts cannot be carried out eternally in teaching secondary, we agree, that's also what I'm working on for the 2022 budget. "

Society

Coronavirus: 1,700 students will be recruited to help with saliva tests in schools

Media

Report information that you think is false to the "Fake Off" team of "20 Minutes"

  • Primary

  • National Education

  • Education

  • Education

  • Middle School

  • High school

  • Fake off

  • Jean-Michel Blanquer

  • Society