Being a teacher at 30 is not easy. But at 60, it’s even less so. An end of career of teachers highlighted then the debate rages on the reform of pensions. Today, according to National Education figures, primary school teachers retire on average at 60.5 years old, and secondary school teachers at 63 years old. And many of them find it difficult to manage a class in their 50s. In particular school teachers, like Anne, 53, who responded to our call for witnesses. “Nervously, the job is exhausting: I’m in the noise all day with about thirty children, and I have to talk non-stop, raising my voice several times. This is without taking into account the class preparation in the evening, the corrections, the meetings on the meridian time and in the evening with the teaching team or the parents of students, the increasingly invasive administrative work…”, enumerates-t -She.
Pascale, 59, in charge of a CM2, also admits to being less able to bear “climbing the stairs several times a day, disciplining in front of students who don’t care, managing paperwork, reassuring parents…” in charge of a CE2 class, Karine, 57, also sticks out her tongue: “After days of 9 to 10 hours, preparations and corrections included, I have no more energy. I don’t want to sacrifice the preparations, on the other hand I reduced all the extras, the meetings with the parents in the evening in particular, which lengthened the days too much, ”she confides.
“I am closer to the living dead than to the human being”
In secondary school too, teachers close to their sixties are feeling the pinch. This is the case of Sophie, 59, a college librarian: “The CDI is very busy and very noisy. Sometimes I have to wear earplugs. Since the start of the school year, I’ve been taking sleeping pills because it’s impossible to last the day if I haven’t slept badly. The relationship with college students is increasingly difficult: disrespect, permanent agitation… From the first gray hairs, they ask us if we are retiring soon, ”she says. Catherine, who works in a vocational school, is in her sixties. She says she is “morally and physically tired of managing classes of teenagers, most of whom are unable to concentrate”. Anne Claire, 48, also teaches in a professional high school, where the students have the greatest difficulties: “They combine social problems, learning problems, allophone students [dont le français n’est pas la langue maternelle] and various disabilities. I’m not sure that at the age of 60, I will still have the same patience and the same benevolence. »
For Agathe, 57, a high school literature teacher, the working conditions, which have become tougher in recent years, are even more difficult to bear when you get older. She mentions “the classes of 30, the very heterogeneous level of the pupils, which implies an enormous expenditure of nervous and physical energy”. As for Franck, 58, he says to himself at the end of his rope: “I am closer to the living dead than to the human being, so exhausted by this job am I. Because no job requires such a commitment,” he says.
“Whatever it takes, I will stop at 60”
Some teachers already know that they will not go to the end of their career. Especially since the pension reform desired by the government provides for a gradual decline in the legal retirement age from 62 to 64 in 2030. It also increases the contribution period to benefit from a full pension: from forty -two years today to forty-three years in 2027. “Whatever the cost, I will stop at 60 years old. I never come home in the evening before 6 p.m., and I’m exhausted… Sometimes I even cry with the feeling of having missed my day,” explains Françoise, a Rep + school teacher in Chambéry. Sabine, a primary school teacher, also expects to have to leave earlier: “I don’t know how, at 64 or over, I could stand up all day, bend over tables to help students, monitor the playground, set up projects (green class or other…). »
Ditto for Margot, a 55-year-old documentalist, now hard of hearing because of the noise she has suffered for years. She “cannot imagine having to wait 64 years to be able to retire”. 50-year-old Vincent, who knows that he will have to leave at 67 to have a full pension, doubts he can do it too: “When you see the energy it takes for a day of lessons, the psychological wear and tear, difficult to imagine the same ability to deploy this energy at age 67. Not sure either that the students would want to see a decrepit old man give them lessons”. Cases far from being isolated, because according to National Education figures, 34% of school teachers and 27% of their secondary school colleagues leave before having all their annuities and their pension is subject to a discount.
“We should have less crowded classes”
To take into account this professional fatigue, the Minister of Education recently announced that teachers would be able to benefit from gradual retirement. But Sophie doubts she can benefit from it. “I am very worried about the years to come, I am afraid of ending up in depression, like a number of slightly older colleagues. »
Like their unions, many teachers are calling for other end-of-career arrangements. Like Jean-Michel: “We should have less busy classes. In the general high school, it turns between 33 and 36 students. However, 36 copies to correct is not 20, as in many other countries. Karine offers another solution: “There are professions that require less energy, for example working within the Rased to help children in difficulty, with small numbers. These positions should be reserved for teachers at the end of their career, who have the experience to perform these functions in the best conditions, ”she suggests. One thing is certain: the ministry will be forced to look into the subject, especially as the crisis in teacher vocations is raging.