PRESS RELEASE
1
st
February 2023
Public thematic report
BECOMING A TEACHER: INITIAL TRAINING AND
RECRUITMENT OF PRIMARY AND SECONDARY
SCHOOL TEACHERS
Pupils' success at school owes a great deal to the quality of the teaching and the support
provided by their teachers throughout their learning process. The quality of teacher recruitment
and training is thus crucial for school performance. The recruitment and initial training of future
teachers have undergone several reforms over previous decades. However, since 2010, this new
framework has shown itself to be unstable and does not guarantee that the training satisfactorily
prepares students for their entry into the profession and for their future duties. A reflection on
the development of the teaching profession, on the place of teachers in society and on the
practical conditions of the exercise of their duties must be conducted. The attractiveness crisis
that has often been mentioned over the last twenty years is now becoming more tangible, even
if many students or people changing careers remain attracted to teaching. The report published
today by the Court of Accounts aims in particular to assess the attractiveness of recruitment and
the quality of their initial training.
Increasingly difficult to recruit, particularly in certain territories and in certain subjects
While the need for teachers depends on student and teacher demographics and educational policy
decisions, it is difficult to assess. Nevertheless, over the period 2017-2021, on the basis of positions
unfilled by external competitive examinations, as an annual average, there was a shortfall of just
over 1,000 teachers (1,110), resulting in the recruitment of non-tenured teachers. In 2022, which
was exceptional due to the implementation of the recent reform, around 4,500 new contractual
staff were recruited. Indeed, the signs of the loss of attractiveness of teacher recruitment are
becoming stronger, even if this general trend needs to be qualified. The deterioration in the image
of the teaching profession, its working conditions and remuneration also have a significant impact
on its attractiveness, as confirmed by the survey conducted by IPSOS at the request of the Court. In
response to these difficulties, the Ministry of Education has been developing an active recruitment
policy for several years now, with the aim of diversifying the pool of applicants for competitive
examinations, adding specific examinations to the standard ones for less attractive education
authorities, and attracting students to teaching at an earlier stage in their studies. It makes greater
use of contractual staff - a policy which has its limits, however, since the pool of contractual staff
largely overlaps with that of future tenured staff.
An unsatisfactory link between initial training and recruitment since the introduction of the
master’s degree
There is currently a debate on the content of training, in relation to the very nature of the teaching
profession. There are two opposing views: one with a global approach to the profession, based as
much on mastering knowledge of the subject as on a good knowledge of the education system, pupil
psychology, pedagogy and the didactics of subjects, and a second that places more emphasis on
subject knowledge. Moreover, the complex position of the
instituts nationaux supérieurs du
professorat et de l’éducation
(INSPE) within universities and the Ministry's desire to verify the
achievements of applicants have led to competitive examinations opening doors to recruitment. The
MEEF master's degree therefore has a dual function of training for a future profession and also of
preparing for a competitive examination, resulting in an overload of work that is counterproductive
for students. The choice of master's degree (or equivalent diploma) also has consequences for entry
into the profession: successful applicants of the competitive examination with a MEEF master's
degree become full-time trainee civil servants during their year of tenure and undergo 10 to 20 days
of training, whereas other successful applicants are now "alternating" between part-time service
and time spent in training at the INSPE. Finally, the cost of initial teacher training is still not easy to
assess - the Court estimates it at around one billion euros.
Drawing all the consequences of the reforms undertaken to build an effective training and
recruitment policy
Beyond the technical improvements of the 2019 reform, a more comprehensive overhaul of the
way teachers are trained and recruited is needed. The Court recommends adjusting the recruitment
procedures for education authorities that are struggling to fill teaching positions, or those in
secondary education for subjects in short supply. The education authorities could experiment with
recruiting on the basis of diplomas, via a multi-year contract (three to five years), during which
applicants would commit to remaining in the position; at the end of this contract, the teacher could
request a permanent contract (CDI) or opt for another career. For primary education, the central
issue is to better develop the training of future school teachers over a five-year continuum.
However, these reform proposals alone cannot make the teaching profession more attractive. The
social status of the position of teacher and the attractiveness of the profession must be a real
interministerial priority, demonstrated and translated into resources. Finally, the Court
recommends a new organisation of training and recruitment, which involves compensating for
territorial inequalities in the attractiveness of the profession by a stronger differentiation in favour
of the education authorities of Créteil and Versailles, targeted at the schools under the greatest
pressure.
Read the report
PRESS CONTACT:
Julie Poissier
◼
Head of Press Relations
◼
T
+33 (0)1 42 98 97 43
◼
+33 (0)6 87 36 52 21
◼
julie.poissier@ccomptes.fr
@Courdescomptes
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