A first concrete measure. The Minister of National Education, Edouard Geffray, announced Thursday October 8 the deployment of some 3,000 teachers in high schools where the situation is most critical. “Thanks to software that I requested a year ago, we were able, at the start of this year – this is the first time we have deployed it – to identify establishments which are in situations which I would describe as very problematic. There are 114 high schools which I would say are red and 400 which are orange”, he explained, specifying the next day that there were precisely 3,024 of them. Where these teachers have they been found? When will they be in office? Franceinfo returns to this announcement in five questions.
1 Where do these teachers come from?
“We have 3,000 replacement teachers who are currently not in front of the students. In the coming hours, they will join these establishments,” declared Edouard Geffray. “In the jargon of National Education, these are TZRs,” specified Philippe Baptiste, Minister of Higher Education, on franceinfo. This acronym means “holders on replacement zone”. These are personnel "second degree holders permanently assigned to a replacement zone", explains the Versailles Academy (PDF).
TZRs are not just teachers. This concerns all teaching, education, guidance and documentation staff. But in the specific case of teachers, they are "most often certified teachers, younger than average and at the start of their career. This assignment is rarely a first choice", explained the Ministry of National Education in 2016. According to a report from the Court of Auditors (PDF), there were "less than 10,000 in 2021".
2 Why weren't they contacted sooner?
The needs had not yet been identified and new tools were being developed, according to the ministry. On the subject of teachers not replaced, among the priority themes raised by students, Edouard Geffray declared Wednesday during a committee hearing at the National Assembly, having launched a "census", by the same evening, of all TZRs without positions, so that "they can be reassigned by the end of the week". “This evening I will have the map of all the establishments which are exposed to an abnormal or harmful situation for the students, a lasting absence, not replaced, in particular for the students in the exam classes, first and final,” he declared.
3 When will they be in office?
“These 3,000 teachers are being contacted directly by the academies,” declared the Minister of National Education. A history-geography teacher must, for example, be assigned to the high school visited by Edouard Geffray and to whom he spoke, Friday morning, in Cachan (Val-de-Marne). According to him, this replacement should "probably be called this morning", he commented, noting that "generally, this happens within twelve to twenty-four hours".
“They will gradually know their assignment during the day or perhaps at the beginning of [next] week, because there is always a little adjustment time.”
Edouard Geffray, Minister of National Education
during a press briefing
“We will try to allocate TZRs as quickly as possible,” declared Emmanuel Roux, rector of the Toulon academy, guest of ICI Azur on Friday. Long-term replacements were provided "last night" in two establishments, in Château-Thierry and Soissons (Aisne), Benoît Bonaimer, rector of the Amiens academy, told ICI Picardie.
In the Grenoble academy, "we will have between 80 and 100 teachers who we will redeploy throughout the academy in order to provide very short-term solutions to the establishments most impacted by long-term replacement", describes Philippe Dulbecco, rector of the Grenoble academy.
The change in method is that before, “we worked by discipline (maths, English, French, etc.), now we work by establishment,” explained Benoît Bonaimer. “We identify the establishments where there are the most replacement problems which are concentrated, and it is on these establishments that we act with these additional means that the minister announced,” he explained.
4 Will they teach their discipline?
Not necessarily, said Edouard Geffray. These 3,024 teachers could be assigned “for support, when their discipline does not necessarily correspond to a need,” he explained. “This makes it possible, for example, to take small groups, to combat the great difficulty at school or to have catch-up for high school students who have not been able to have classes in recent days,” he argued.
But teachers in the replacement zone must first take the place of teachers who teach the same subject as them and have not been replaced sometimes “for several weeks”. “Above all, that’s the point,” insisted the Minister of National Education.
5 How was their assignment decided?
It has been under construction for about a year, said Edouard Geffray. “It is a tool that we have also boosted with AI, which allows for precise geolocation and which measures the transport time of teachers,” he explained. “This obviously helps us to assign them because if you assign someone to the other end of their zone (...) you make their task significantly more complicated,” he argued. “We optimized our processes and also the quality of life of our replacements,” he summarized.
“These devices are, for some, barely a few days old,” he conceded. “I must admit that we have boosted things a little in recent weeks. And they allow us to use all the available resources, that is to say these 3,000 teachers.”
