The Parliament definitively adopted Monday the LREM bill which creates the function of school director, a low noise revolution in the organization of primary school against a backdrop of teacher malaise.
After a long journey that began in May 2020, the deputies put an end to the journey of this text which is far from unanimous among teachers and their representatives. The text of the deputy Cécile Rilhac was adopted by 48 votes for and five against. The left voted against a text acclaimed on the other hand by the majority and LR.
Difficulties that go back
The bill attacks a sea serpent in educational debates: the status, function and place of school principals. A subject on which the ministers of National Education have broken their teeth for fifteen years. But faced with the increase in their responsibilities and their workload, the upgrading of the positions of some 45,000 school directors has finally become essential, as well as the promotion of new tools so that they can properly carry out their missions. .
The suicide in the fall of 2019 of a director, Christine Renon, in Seine-Saint-Denis, had dramatically highlighted their difficulties. The latter had mentioned her “exhaustion” and her “loneliness” in the function. The health crisis, during which directors were on the front line to implement anti-Covid protocols, has not helped.
Specific allowance and “functional authority”
The bill provides that school principals have a “managerial job” and benefit from “a delegation of powers from the academic authority” for the proper functioning of the school.
Teachers occupying these positions will receive a specific management allowance and will benefit from accelerated advancement as well as a total or partial discharge from teaching depending on the number of classes and the specificities of the school. A provision introduced by the Senate organizes the principle of a “functional authority of school directors”.
“Managerial drift”
“The director pilots and administers his school (…) The inspector evaluates the teachers”, summarized Ms. Rilhac, hailing a “historic” moment when the last text devoted to school directors debated in parliament dated back to 1989. But these measures come up against the sensitivity of many primary school teachers, very attached to the school collective, some comparing the functioning of primary schools to a “small Republic”.
A majority of unions headed by Snuipp-FSU, the first primary organization, denounces a “managerial drift”. However, teachers’ representatives do not present a united front on the issue. On the contrary, SE-Unsa, the second primary union, sees it as “a positive impulse”.
A “laboratory worthy of Frankenstein”
In the hemicycle, the left in unison echoed the opponents of this text, criticizing “a liberalization” of education like the deputy Lamia El Aaraje (PS). “Eliminating the collegial functioning of the primary school will not solve the problems of administrative overload”, warned Michel Larive (LFI). “We do not create a hierarchy,” defended LREM Sylvie Charrière. The Minister of National Education Jean-Michel Blanquer praised a “pragmatic and flexible” text, “as close as possible to the realities on the ground”.
The fears of the left were fueled by the announcements of Emmanuel Macron in Marseille who wants, within the framework of targeted experiments, to allow the director to “choose the teaching team”. It is a “laboratory worthy of Frankenstein” which makes the school “the antechamber of the company”, alarmed Sabine Rubin (LFI). The details and follow-up to these announcements are still not known, however.
More resources?
Among the other novelties of the text, school directors will benefit from a training effort on the part of the rue de Grenelle but also from a boost in their daily life, for example with the employment of an administrative agent. .
The municipalities and inter-municipal authorities will also be able to get their hands on the wallet by providing material resources.