It is a high mass for which he has been preparing all summer. Pap Ndiaye will present his first back-to-school press conference as Minister of Education this Friday. A sensitive exercise, both technical and political for any new tenant of the rue de Grenelle, his first steps being scrutinized, both by teachers and by journalists. Except that the element of surprise risks being a little hackneyed. Because against all expectations, Emmanuel Macron intervened this Thursday morning at the back-to-school meeting of academy rectors at the Sorbonne. And he was not satisfied with an exercise in representation, but detailed his roadmap for Education, by distilling some unpublished information.
A way of tutoring his minister, according to Sophie Vénétitay, deputy general secretary of the Snes-FSU teacher union: “It is not trivial to speak the day before the minister’s press conference. This demonstrates Emmanuel Macron’s desire to frame it and regain control of the subject of the start of the school year. This leaves no leeway for Pap Ndiaye to make announcements on D-Day. Just the possibility of providing after-sales service”. Stéphane Crochet, secretary general of Se-Unsa, also believes that the president’s intervention this Thursday has a strong symbolic significance: “Emmanuel Macron was already accompanying Pap Ndiaye in Marseille in June to promote “the school of the future”. There, he addresses the rectors in his place. Which raises the question: does Pap Ndiaye really have control over education policy? “.
A return to important issues
The questions of the unions are all the more acute as the challenges awaiting the new minister are enormous. “The recruitment crisis is at an unprecedented height, the staff are coming out of two years of Covid and five years of Blanquer. The cocktail is explosive,” warns Sophie Vénétitay. Indeed, in July, 4,000 positions remained vacant following the teaching competitions (1,686 in primary and 2,267 in secondary). This has forced the rectorates to recruit more contract workers. “But this emergency solution will not be enough. Especially when it is necessary to replace teachers on sick leave, ”warns Stéphane Crochet. “This profession no longer attracts”, also says Guislaine David, spokesperson for the SNUipp-FSU, who is calling for structural measures to encourage vocations.
The revaluation of teachers’ salaries is the other hot topic of the start of the school year. If the minister and the president have repeated their intention to arrive at a net salary of 2,000 euros net per month for a beginner teacher and to better remunerate specific missions, unknowns remain. Some teachers still earn 2,000 euros today after fifteen years of career, and Pap Ndiaye declared in August that the whole salary scale for teachers should be reviewed. But we don’t know how or when this will happen. “We will have to put the package on the beginnings and mid-careers, insists Guislaine David, spokesperson for SNUipp-FSU. As for the increases linked to additional missions, we do not want to reintroduce the “work more to earn more””.
Other projects will also be on the minister’s desk: the reform of the professional path, changes to be planned in teacher training, the extension of experiments in the “school of the future”, a college more open to the world of the company…
“We feel a break in method compared to Jean-Michel Blanquer”
To meet the challenges facing him, Pap Ndiaye should bet on the famous “change of method” promised by the executive. This implies in particular another way of approaching social relations. This is well received by the unions. “We feel a break in method compared to Jean-Michel Blanquer. Pap Ndiaye is more attentive, ”said Sophie Vénétitay. “He consults a lot with teachers and in civil society. We also manage to obtain audiences in his office, ”adds Guislaine David. And for Stéphane Crochet, “he respects the teachers and takes the time to build a personal opinion. »
If the art of dialogue of the new minister therefore seems to be unanimous for the moment, it could be insufficient to allow him to fully embody the function. And it is probably more on his ability to act that he will be judged this fall. “Pap Ndiaye cannot be content with being a symbol. Will he have the political weight and the sufficient networks within the government to obtain his arbitrations? asks Sophie Vénétitay.