“I was completely let loose in nature.” Gaëlle, a contract teacher for six years, remembers her first return to school as if it were yesterday. “They asked me if I was available during the day, I dropped my children off at school and at 1:30 p.m. I was in front of my class”, remembers this former engineer, who confided in franceinfo, Tuesday August 30. Without a job interview or training, Gaëlle finds herself in front of 31 CM1 and CM2 students. “A kid told me they were reading a book so I caught up with the wagons like thatshe explains. It was improvisation.”
Gaëlle’s experience, many contract teachers have also experienced it. These first and second level teachers are recruited each year, on the basis of a diploma but without competition, in order to teach in areas where there is a lack of holders. And there are more and more of them every year. In the public sector, their number almost doubled between 2008 and 2021, reaching nearly 40,000 across France. More than 5% of the total workforce.
The start of the 2022 school year should easily beat this record. In “a context of unprecedented tension for the recruitment of teachers”, the Minister of National Education, Pap Ndiaye, announced the hiring of 3,000 additional contractors. The unions deplore the difficult working conditions linked to this precarious status. A dozen of these non-tenured teachers told us about their experience, sometimes complicated, in the deep end of National Education.
The adventure of contract workers almost always begins in the same way. After submitting a CV on the ministry’s platform or at Pôle Emploi, these higher education graduates of all ages receive a phone call informing them of their assignment to one or more establishments. A call that is often slow to arrive, as the start of the school year approaches. “It’s August 30, it’s 11:16 a.m. The pre-return is tomorrow. I have no information”, worries Jennifer, reached by phone. On the first day of school, this contractual Spanish teacher had still not received an assignment. Last year, she had already had the unpleasant surprise of moving from full-time to part-time. Enough to melt his income and rekindle his anxieties.
“From one year to another, you don’t know what sauce you’re going to be eaten with.”
Jennifer, contract teacherat franceinfo
At the same time, other contract workers contacted by franceinfo were still awaiting a response. “I don’t know yet if I will get a job, no one has called me”, Linda was already worried on Tuesday. Rightly so: on the morning of the start of the school year, she had still not been contacted. In 2021, already, this contractual professor of mathematics and visual arts in Ile-de-France, had to wait until October to finally get an assignment following a withdrawal, despite her ten years of experience. “We fill in the holes”summarizes Lionel, another contractor.
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Eloi *, he still had no contact with the rectorate on Tuesday when he was to start the next day in an establishment. “I don’t have a work contract and when I call the rectorate, I get a voicemail telling me that they are closed until September 14”, blows this history and geography teacher, who finally signed his contract on Wednesday, the day of the pre-return of teachers. Last year was no better. “I had been offered a position on the first day of school and asked me to also teach French.” An unacceptable situation for the unions. “You have to assume that a recruited teacher cannot find himself in front of a class in twenty-four hours”, claims Sophie Vénétitay, secretary general of Snes-FSU.
Without being able to anticipate, contract teachers often arrive in their establishment with nothing but their schoolbag to start working. Mélissa*, a teacher under this status for just over four years in Puy-de-Dôme, describes a form of “precipitation” followed by a feeling of “solitude” remembering his first day of school. “I was alone in front of a group of BTS, nothing was set up to welcome meshe laments. That day, I had not even had access to the ENT [Environnement numérique de travail] right away, and I was not necessarily given any contact with the teachers.”
At first, “we are a little loose in the arena”, abounds Linda. She remembers the complicated beginnings, eleven years ago. “I had an appointment with an inspector: I was not even asked if I knew how to perform an operation”, she is indignant. Without prior training, the novice teacher of the time learned on the job the specifics of the profession, such as “know how to manage a group” or “how to make a class plan”.
The first days of a contract are often synonymous “d’improvisation” for these contract workers, who arrived urgently to replace absent teachers. “These teachers we replace do not necessarily have the time to teach us anything.explains Gaëlle. So, at the beginning, we sometimes chain evenings and evenings of work to catch up on everything.
“I asked for help. It made my superiors laugh, they said to me: ‘Make your own way!'”
Julie, contract teacher in the Toulouse academyat franceinfo
For the first time this year, contract teachers were invited by their rectorate to a training course a few days before the start of the school year, on the directive of the Ministry of Education. On the program: four days of learning the basics of the trade and a few simulations. “We are very happy that it was finally able to be put in place, we have been asking for it for a long time”, welcomes Dorothée Crespin, national delegate to Unsa Education. Insufficient training, judge for her part Sophie Vénétitay: “It’s an illusion to believe that you can become a teacher in just four days”.
In addition, the ministry, contacted by franceinfo, recalls that, throughout the year, contract staff can, “like all other personnel”, register at formations. In the first degree, eighteen hours of compulsory training are also provided for the entire teaching staff. But, in fact, many contractors interviewed report difficulties in freeing up time for training. “Establishments don’t necessarily have the time to let us goexplains Gaëlle. Sometimes you have to travel more than an hour from home, it’s complicated.” Above all, you have to train “outside school hours”on her personal time, explains Linda, who regrets “expectations too high” related to ‘little recognition’.
Once launched, without a safety net, in the great machine of National Education, contract teachers often feel a bit alone. “We find ourselves in a family with codes, and in this family, there is the intruder. The contract worker is the intruder”testifies Angèle *, professor of visual arts who taught as a contract worker for more than ten years.
Linda remembers her year 2021, during which a contract led her to spend only seven hours a week in an establishment. “I hardly saw my colleagues, she confides. We feel that we are not integrated, that we are not part of the team.” Over a short period, “the teachers don’t try too hard to talk to us because they know we won’t be here for long”, adds Gaelle. Sometimes it goes further: some more qualified teachers “refuse to greet” non-permanent teachers or else self-attribute “dedicated areas in the staff room”tell several contract workers.
“In the teachers’ room, there were those who had the right to sit in the armchairs and the others. We, the contract workers, we remained standing.”
Benoît, contract teacher at the Grenoble Academyat franceinfo
These repeated misadventures should not hide many successful experiences. “The teaching team immediately took me under their wing to coach me and give me advice”, salutes Eloi*, a contract worker in the Lyon region. A seasoned teacher even became his tutor “on his own time”, he says. It must be said that the working conditions, which are sometimes difficult in certain establishments, tend to weld teachers together. “In college, everyone is in the same boat, raises Benoit. Under these conditions, there is no longer any difference or competition.”
* The first name has been changed at the request of the person concerned.