Teacher Education and Development Study in Mathematics - IEA

PART 2: FRANCE
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Teacher education and recruitment
In France, the requirements for becoming a teacher are as follows. Applicants must
have a licence (completed university) or equivalent degree and studied for a selective
entrance examination (the concours), either as first-year students in a university institute
for teacher education (IUFM) or independently. Once applicants pass the concours, they
have to spend a second year of training at an IUFM as a paid trainee teacher and pass
the associated professional qualification examination. At that point, they become fully
qualified teachers and state employees. Their assignment to a particular school and
class is determined with reference to a vast “database” that documents assignment of
teachers and reassignment of those teachers who want to change posts. Each assignment
is conducted by way of a points system that depends mainly on seniority.
For primary school teachers, the concours is organized within each region; assignment
to a school is done at departmental level. The focus is on multifunctional competencies.
Pre-service education is the responsibility of the higher education system, but in-service
education is carried out by the education system itself. Secondary education teachers
need a university degree in the relevant subject area. The concours is organized at the
national level and focuses on the particular subject area the applicant wants to teach.
During the 2002 teacher recruitment campaign, the concours attracted about 55,000
candidates for the 12,000 posts open in primary education, and almost 93,000 for the
17,200 posts being offered to new secondary education teachers. However, this situation
has since reversed because there are now many more teachers retiring than new teachers
coming in, particularly at the secondary level (Cros & Obin, 2004). The Inspectorate
General of National Education and the Inspectorate General of Finance earlier estimated
that the bulk of retirements would occur around 2003/2004 in primary education and
in 2007/2008 in secondary education (Cros & Obin, 2004).
From as early as 1997, there were signs of the upcoming difficulties, with university
enrollments beginning to decline in that year, and likewise initial enrollments at the
IUFMs. The government therefore put in place a number of incentives to attract young
people to teaching. These included:
preparing to sit the concours, in exchange for a commitment to teaching if they pass
the examination;
education;
with a shortage of teachers;
intellectuals, doers, and managers.
France was able to maintain its teaching force in the early and mid 2000s. However,
a new government, elected in 2007 on a platform of making the public sector more
efficient, and the economic crisis of late 2008 combined to create a different dynamic.
Reforms have been introduced to reduce the teaching force in France. More than 10,000
teaching jobs were cut in 2008 and another 13,000 in 2009. 11
11 See http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/oct31/france-baccalaurate-sarkozy-strike.