PRESS RELEASE

02 December 2021

PUBLIC THEMATIC REPORT

MANAGING TEACHER ABSENCES

With more than one million employees - i.e., almost half of all civil servants - including

900,000 teachers, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport devotes a large part of its work

to managing its human resources, and in this context, must manage teacher absences. The

report published today emphasises that these absences, far from being a global

phenomenon, actually cover two very distinct categories: absences for personal reasons

(linked in particular to health), and those related to the running of the school itself (on-going

training, examinations, school trips, etc.). While the health crisis has highlighted the

importance of the continuity of face-to-face learning, the Court of Accounts makes six

recommendations aimed at better understanding the phenomenon, improving preventive

healthcare initiatives, and limiting and covering short-term absences.

Absence from work and absence from school: two distinct realities

The specific features of the teaching profession, in particular, the weekly service obligations

and the school calendar, make it difficult to measure their absences, and distort comparisons

with other categories of employees. For example, a teacher who is unable to teach a lesson

because they are called on by their superiors to carry out another task - such as sitting on an

examination board -

is considered absent by their pupils’ families. However, through this

activity, they are contributing to the running of the school. The Court notes that in primary

education, teaching cover is arranged for school teachers in almost 80% of cases, from the

first day of absence. This is not the case in secondary education: in 2018-2019, almost 10% of

teaching hours were “lost” in secondary school, i.e., a loss that was up 24% compared to the

prev

ious year. What are known as “short

-

term” absences, i.e., of less than two weeks, account

for almost 2.5 million hours, of which only just over 500,000 were covered. While parents and

pupils themselves have less and less tolerance for this, this lost teaching time is not well

identified by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MENJS).

Measuring and comparing the phenomenon: an essential preliminary step

To date, the Ministry still lacks robust and remotely accessible tools to measure these

absences and relate them to service obligations. Although the majority of secondary schools

are now equipped with school life software that can be used to provide families with

information, the lack of an interface between this software and the Ministry’s national

applications means the institution does not have the necessary information. Due to a lack of