As well as the variation in levels, another difference I noticed between schools in Guiana and Brittany is the demographic of teachers. The majority of teachers in my boyfriend's schools were around 35 or under; in my school, almost all of them are in their late forties and there's only one under 35. Bizarrely - and I think this is just a coincidence - a large proportion of them are in interracial marriages, that is to say, a white French woman married to an African, Arab or Asian man. I have no idea why all the non-racist people in France appear to have gathered together in one school, but there you go.
However, the age difference is unsurprising when you look at how teaching works in France. Unlike in the UK, teachers in France are actually civil servants: once they've passed their exams*, assuming they remain fit to teach and don't turn out to be paedophiles, they have employment for life. Hence why they go on strike far more often than their British counterparts.
The designation of French teachers works rather like the Army: instead of applying for jobs in individual schools, as we do, they instead get posted to schools by the government. They can choose the académie (academic region) or at least make a request, but they don't choose the school they are assigned to. In theory, each posting is a contract for a few years, but they can choose to extend it if they wish.
Unsurprisingly, the more experience you have as a teacher, the more clout you have when it comes to getting your preferred académie. NQTs almost always get the dirty jobs that no one else wants, while seasoned veterans can practically pick and choose. This is why so many new or new-ish teachers end up in the overseas départements. They know they're likely to get in because no one wants to go there due to the poor school results, but if they apply for anywhere better, they'll be lumbered with worse - ie the suburbs of Paris - so they hedge their bets and figure that at least they can get a tan. Or, if we're being less cynical, the teachers who choose to go to the DOMs are young, single and still looking for a bit of adventure and jungle trekking before they settle down in the south of France.
Brittany, on the other hand, is one of the most desired académies - supposedly due to its high school results but I'm tempted to believe that the amazing cider has something to do with it too. Which is why my school is populated with highly experienced teachers who have done their bit, slogging it in the ZEPs (Zone Education Prioritaire - basically ASBO Central), and are finally settling into probably their last posting in a cushy job in a nice Breton lycée, with kids who know how to spell Proust and who say, "Bonjour Madame," every morning to you.
I promise I'll stop blathering on about education theory and get back to the guess-what-my-students-said-this-week anecdotes soon.
* Which are competitive; in other words, if there are 50 places and 100 entrants, the top 50 will pass and the rest will fail, even if they get, say, 95%.
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*- Can they retest?
ReplyDeleteInteresting. I don't know if that's ideal, as I had a lot of good teachers who were new and young and enthusiastic, as well as the older, more knowledgeable ones who weren't terribly interested anymore. As well as the young ones overwhelmed trying to keep order, and the older ones who still loved to teach.
That's an interesting point - I don't know if they can retest or not. One would certainly hope so.
ReplyDeleteI agree that there ought to be a mix of teachers in schools; I also think it's unfair to throw almost all newly-qualified teachers to the lions in the poorly-performing schools, risking putting them off for life.
In theory, the system works: teachers go where they're placed, rather than only applying for jobs in nice schools, leaving the worst places crying out for applicants and taking whoever they can get. But that only works in a system which operates with complete equality, which obviously isn't the case. The académies claim to treat each application equally regardless of experience, but even the newest teachers know that it's not how it works.