Why So Many Teachers Are Calling It Quits

 

FRANCE: Teachers are quitting in record numbers, overwhelmed by low pay, crowded classrooms and increasing demands. Despite successive reforms by previous governments, staffing shortages persist. And leaving the profession is often a difficult process. With the announcement of a new education minister just around the corner, will France’s public education crisis finally ease up?

Rémi Boyer taught history and geography in French public schools for 21 years but decided to retire early because the job “had become too difficult”. Paul* only lasted three years as a design teacher at a vocational high school before he became exhausted and quit. A German-language teacher who has spent the past five years teaching at a school a two-hour drive from her home is still in the trenches, trying to get transferred.

Public school teachers in France are reaching a breaking point. Faced with overcrowded classrooms, heavy workloads and low pay, many feel the commitment required by the profession is no longer sustainable.

Years of neglect and underfunding have left French public schools struggling, and teachers are bearing the brunt of these challenges – often with little support or recognition.

Despite promises by successive governments to address the issue, reforms have failed to tackle core problems. There have been four education ministers in the last year alone. Measures introduced by former education minister Gabriel Attal in 2023 and implemented for the 2024-2025 school term include more testing in primary schools, a controversial plan to separate middle school students into groups according to their mathematics and French levels, and experimenting with mandatory school uniforms – moves fiercely opposed by education unions, who have called for successive strikes since the start of the year.

Coupled with the fact that since 2010, the requirements to be hired as a tenured public sector teacher became more stringent, the share of teachers voluntarily leaving the profession is at an all-time high.

Inheriting a tarnished track record, the incoming education minister should be announced by Prime Minister Michel Barnier next week, and will have to put actions to words if they want to curb the trend.

Staffing shortages

Although resignations are relatively moderate in comparison to the total number of teachers in France, they are growing exponentially. In the space of just ten years, the number of departures quadrupled from 2012 to 2022.

And that is due to multiple reasons. Not only are teachers facing heftier workloads, particularly administrative tasks, but they are also required to carry out differentiated teaching in packed classrooms of 30 or more students. Many feel they suffer from a lack of recognition and support, with salaries that don’t reflect the efforts they put in their job.

These contributing factors are compounded by the fact that the French public education system – which schools 80 percent of French pupils – is grappling with significant staffing shortages in its public schools.

According to figures published by the French ministry of education in July, 3,185 teaching posts were unfilled for the start of this year’s school term. The absence of teachers amounted to around 15 million hours of teaching lost in the 2022-2023 school year – stripping students of essential learning hours.

“I never really planned on being a teacher,” said Paul, who previously worked as a graphic designer and DJ. After the Covid-19 pandemic first hit in early 2020, he was looking for something more stable. “My mum taught first-graders and I knew that teaching was something I could be interested in.”

So when a friend told Paul there was an opening for a design teacher at a vocational high school in the Seine-et-Marne region east of Paris, he applied. “One week later, I was standing in a classroom full of students,” he said. Short-staffed, the school was in dire need of someone to fill the position. “All I needed to do was prove I had a Master’s degree in design, that my criminal record was clean and fill out some administrative forms. Nobody met with me or interviewed me before I started to see whether I knew how to teach. It was crazy,” he recalled.

In an effort to fill gaping staffing shortages, the French government launched a scheme in 2022 to hire contract teachers on fixed-term contracts in public schools. Prospective teachers in France normally have to go through a competitive tenure system and pass demanding exams to eventually become “titulaires” – civil servants working as licensed teachers in the public sector.

By introducing this short-cut and simplifying requirements, the hope was that staffing shortages could be quelled and the strain on the educated system eased. But many contracted teachers, many of whom had no previous teaching experience, received little to no training and quit shortly after.

Though a disorienting first year as a teacher was to be expected for Paul, over time, he began to run into difficulties. The school board would pile on his workload, change the format of exams without explanation and rarely show support when teachers would ask for clarifications. “I had the impression I was caught in the middle. Students were expecting a lot from me to help them get their high school diploma. And at the same time, the people who are meant to tell me how to prepare them were throwing the ball back in my court as if it were all up to me,” he said.

Quickly, the job became overwhelming. “I also had psychologically fragile students. I am not equipped to help someone who tells me that they thought of jumping out of their window that morning, or that they can’t be around sharp objects with scars all over their arms,” he outlined. “It’s the kind of job that you never stop thinking about. It’s exhausting.”

After three years of teaching, he decided he had had enough and quit at the end of the 2023 school term. “I told myself that these students don’t deserve someone who isn’t one hundred percent invested,” he explained.

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- Author: Lara BULLENS, France24