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Last updated at 21:44 PM, Thu, 2 Sep
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Back to school for 12 million pupils
The long summer break is finally over...
France’s 12 million pupils go back to school on Thursday, amid controversy over the number of new and allegedly untrained teachers in the classroom.
At this year’s rentrée there are 852,000 teachers in all, with 368,928 in primary and 483,979 in collèges and lycées.
However, new reforms mean that for the first time some 15,472 trainee teachers – recruited in 2010 – will be teaching classes full time on their own. In the past they have done this as part of their course at the teaching training colleges the IUFM or Instituts universitairse de formation des maîtres.
‘I am worried because I’ve never been in front of a pupil before,’ said Sandrine Couturier, 26 , an economics and management teacher before starting work at the lycée de Bussy-Saint-Georges in the Seine-et-Marne.
However education minister Luc Chatel insists: ‘We’re not leaving teachers with no training.’
He said that they had had several induction days in advance and that they would be supervised by an experienced teacher or ‘tutor’ throughout the year.
Josette Théophile, the education department’s head of human resources, also said that 60 percent of new teachers had already worked in temporary jobs in schools.
However many teachers fear the newcomers are not properly prepared for the classroom.
Unions also say that not every new teacher has a tutor – something the ministry denies.
Another major issue is the reduction in the overall number of teaching posts.
A total of 16,000 positions were removed this year with a similar number going next year too.
The teaching union Snes-FSU has called a strike over the issue on Monday 6 September.
The following day many teachers will also be on strike as part of the national day of action to protest against pension reforms.