“If I had to do it all over again, I would become a teacher again.”
The number of applicants for secondary school teaching positions has fallen by more than 30% in fifteen years. And the situation is no better in primary education. Agnès Perrin-Doucey is Dean of the Faculty of Education. Prior to that, she taught at all levels from kindergarten to university, including middle school and high school. She talks to us about the human values of a profession that underpins our societies.
In 2023, the number of candidates for the primary school teaching exam was down 38% compared to 2021 and 18.5% for secondary school teaching (Le Monde, January 2, 2023). Are all teaching and education professions affected by this decline in attractiveness?
The phenomenon is very visible in all teaching professions, slightly less so for the CPE competitive examination, but it is slowly coming. There is a decline in the attractiveness of professions that focus on people in general. We are also seeing this in the health sector. It is a trend that is affecting other European countries, even though France is a country where teachers are still quite mistreated.
Is this phenomenon consistent?
In primary education, school districts such as Créteil and Versailles are more affected, but even in Montpellier, which is a sought-after school district, the acceptance rate has fallen and now stands at 1.5 candidates per position. In secondary education, many subjects are struggling to recruit. We talk about mathematics and German, but this is also the case for French. There are still some very popular subjects such as physical education, philosophy, and history-geography, but even there, the number of candidates for competitive examinations is beginning to decline.
You say that these professions are being mistreated. Why is that?
There is the issue of pay, but that's not the only factor. Public service professions have long been held in low esteem by society in general. For teachers, there are also the constant and exhausting reforms, which ultimately lead to disengagement. Some are reluctant to commit to 42 or 43 years in this profession. There are also international surveys that convey the idea that French schools are in decline without explaining the reasons for these weaknesses and without mentioning that French students are among the best in the world. This illustrates the social divide in our country, which is very evident in schools.
The rate of use of contract workers has increased by 1.5 points in secondary education over the past five years, and in primary education, the number of contract workers was up 38% compared to 2020 (Senate information report, June 8, 2022). The Versailles Academy even organized job dating events to recruit (France Bleue, May 27, 2022). How can we motivate young people to take the competitive exam?
Today, many teachers are hired on a contract basis. In secondary education, the competitive exam is national, and many students do not want to go to academies with a shortage of teachers. This topic was very much on the agenda at the meeting organized with the rector: "Are you planning to hold an academic competitive exam for secondary education?" [Read Meeting the future teachers of the UM, 7/11/2023]. And then we take the competitive exams later too. At 24 or 25, we are already settled in life, many young people are in relationships and aspire to settle down. All of this weighs on recruitment.
The resignation rate among trainees has never been higher; it is currently ten times higher than that of permanent staff (Senate information report by G. Longuet, June 8, 2022). What do you think is causing these resignations?
In Montpellier, the rates are notas high. Internships are essential, but it's true that sometimes certain experiences can be devastating for young people because they realize that teaching is difficult and tiring. There's the voice, the breath, the physical fatigue... The teacher in the classroom is the one who drives the energy, so you have to have a lot of it. That's one of the things you discover when you learn the profession. Personally, I was exposed to teaching at a fairly young age, first as a counselor at a summer camp. When you are woken up in the middle of the night because a child is sick, when you have only been asleep for two hours, you learn to forget about yourself and get up. These experiences do not teach you how to teach, but they do provide you with essential interpersonal skills for teaching and relating to young children.
You mentioned teachers' interpersonal skills. What do you think these are?
The first interpersonal skill for teaching is kindness and self-control, but it's also knowing how to assert authority and being firm while remaining fair. Ask the students, they all say the same thing. A good teacher is someone who is fair, who helps you progress, who listens to you, who understands you. It's someone who is able to take the student where they are and bring them as far as possible. It's a bit like the honest man of the 18th century. You should reread Montaigne's Essays; he had a lot to say about what makes a good teacher.
But in a classroom, not all students are at the same level, so how can you bring them all along?
Yes, and that's why fairness is such an essential value. All of this can be learned; you become a better teacher with experience, even if it's not always easy, because you don't succeed with every student. And then, of course, there is mastery and interest in your subject, and all the intellectual qualities that enable you to effectively transmit knowledge, even if I don't like the word "transmit."
Why?
Because it suggests that there is an empty vessel that the teacher will fill with their knowledge. I often say to trainees at the very beginning of the year that we don't teach, we facilitate learning. It is the student who learns, we create the conditions for learning. That's why training today places greater emphasis on what are known as soft skills. Learning to develop a non-violent relationship with oneself and others, for example. In France, we have largely remained stuck with the idea that knowledge must be adapted to the techniques of the profession, but there are many other skills to be acquired.
What do you mean?
For example, school teachers are expected to master the technique of teaching reading. Yes, of course, but above all they need to be able to analyze how students learn, because when it comes to learning to read, students learn in very different ways. They also need to know how to develop the student's relationship with reading.
Are there techniques for teaching?
Yes, but that's not the most important thing. It's a profession that requires a high level of understanding of your subject, but also of the psychology of children and teenagers, of society, of history, of pedagogy, and of who you are yourself. Jaurès said: " We don't teach what we know or what we think we know... we also teach a little of who we are." " This quote is debatable, as we must also set aside private matters. But when he says what we are, he means our commitment, the kind of citizens we are. This is what has shaped and built us, and inevitably, it is a profession in which the question of human values is a powerful one.
Is commitment a fundamental value in the teaching profession?
I believe that you cannot do this job if you are not committed to people or to citizenship, if you do not question the importance of the profession for humanity—and I mean humanity, I am very ambitious. Clearly, it is an intellectual profession that is political in nature, yet it is often treated as a technical profession, particularly at the elementary level.
Do you encourage students to pursue these careers anyway?
The other day, a student asked the Rector and everyone present: "Do you think this is the best job in the world? " I don't know if it's the best job in the world, it's the only one I've ever done, but if I had to do it all over again, I would become a teacher again, even in the current context. I have found complete fulfillment in this profession because I have found what I was looking for. A passion for my subject, literature, a passion for teaching, a passion for human relations. I was able to progress steadily in my career, which perhaps allowed me to have no regrets about my choices. And today there are still students who believe in this profession. I don't know if that's what you call a vocation, but they go into it because they want to teach.
What has teaching brought you personally?
During her visit, the superintendent told the students that we all had a role model teacher. I have many role model teachers. I also have teachers I dislike. But I also think that every teacher has students who have left a mark on their life, students who have helped them grow in their profession. There is an education inspector for literature at the Montpellier Academy who has designed a project called "Ces élèves qui nous élèvent" (The students who raise us up). That's exactly what this profession is all about: students raise us up.