The teaching profession is losing its attractiveness, a phenomenon which is getting worse from year to year and which could lead to “complex situations” from the start of the next school year, reports Franceinfo. Fewer and fewer candidates pass the competition for the Certificate of Aptitude for Teaching Secondary Education (Capes), a preliminary step to becoming a teacher in a high school or college. A disaffection that particularly affects mathematics and German. This declining attractiveness is all the worse since the government planned to add, from September, 1h30 of math to the common core of first general at the start of the 2022 school year.
René Chiche, professor of philosophy and member of the Superior Council of Education, alerted to this in a tweet:
First results of the recruitment competition for mathematics teachers (CAPES): 816 eligible (for 1035 positions)!
In 2021, they were 1706 eligible (and 1067 admitted) for 1167 positions.
Congratulations to the Ministers of National Destruction for this disaster!— Rene Chiche (@rene_chiche) May 10, 2022
This shortage is the consequence of a limited number of candidates more than a drop in the level of skills.
In German, the significant decrease in the number of candidates for Capes is also explained by a certain disaffection of French youth for this language, in particular since the abolition of European classes in 2015. For the German Capes, 83 are eligible for 215 places available and in mathematics: 816 are eligible for 1,035 open positions.
Decrease in the number of open positions
In other subjects such as classics, English, earth sciences and life and history geography, there is a considerable drop in open positions at external Capes: the figures range from −40% to −30 % on average. In this tweet, a professor analyzed the evolution between 2017 and 2022 of open positions at external Capes. This delivers a very alarming finding.
I checked the numbers to be sure. To be linked with the fall in the number of candidates for years.
It’s a disaster, we’re going straight into the wall in an almost general indifference #CAPES #EducationNationale pic.twitter.com/YjQKtLVUkq
– Baptiste Quiniou (@BaptisteQuiniou) May 11, 2022
“The urgency is clearly first and foremost a question of salary.”
Faced with this situation, Sophie Vénétitay, secretary general of the SNES-FSU expressed her concern at the microphone of France info: “The urgency is clearly first and foremost a question of salary. It must be remembered that beginner teachers are 1.1 times the minimum wage. It should also be remembered that new teachers are eligible for the activity bonus, which is a mechanism for combating poverty. There is an urgent need to really take strong measures for our salaries of early career, but also for the whole career of teachers.”
DIRECT – National Education is looking for candidates: 200 positions are unfilled “It’s a dark year but it’s not the first”, reacts Sophie Vénétitay, secretary general of the SNES-FSU. “There is an urgency in terms of salaries .” pic.twitter.com/LDsmGqMtlp
— franceinfo (@franceinfo) May 12, 2022
See also: Open letter to teachers