Administrative and material assistance that can be granted are still debated about its care: the state or the communes.
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It’s a small revolution that is preparing for primary schools without making any noise. The Senate adopted, Wednesday, October 20, at second reading, the bill that creates the function of school principal. The text, the member of whom the Republic in March Cécile Rilhac is at the origin, gives them a “functional authority” and a “delegation of powers” which must give them more room for maneuver.
The lack of recognition of this profession has been tragically highlighted since the suicide of the Christine Renon School Director in 2019, and the health crisis has shown, if necessary, the importance of their role in the proper functioning of the school. Yet, until now, the director is a teacher like the others, an “peer peer”. Since primary school is a municipal service without legal status, it must constantly refer to its decisions to the town hall, on the one hand, and to the academic inspection, on the other. The functional authority is supposed to remedy this lack of latitude. “We are not creating a” caporealization “system, we are strengthening the collective dimension, with a pilot role of the director or school director,” said Jean-Michel Blanquer, The Minister of National Education, before senators.
Fuzzy contours
This reform divides teacher unions. The SE-UNSA and the SGEN-CFDT are pretty favorable there. “There is nothing dangerous in this bill. It is primarily to recognize the special role of the Director,” Assured Audrey Lalanne, National Delegate of SE-UNSA. Conversely, the SNUIPP-FSU, South-Education, the CGT-Educ’action and SNUDI are opposed to it. They fear that this “functional authority” with fuzzy contours becomes a hierarchical authority. “This bill opens a breach of which even the directors do not want. They need mostly discharge and administrative assistance,” says Guislaine David, the SNUipp-Fsu spokesman, the majority union in the first degree. Only 11% of the 45,000 school directors actually wish to “have a true status of head of school”, according to an OpinionWay survey for the Ministry of National Education, conducted in 2019. Despite their opposition, these unions struggle to mobilize Teachers, for the moment.
If MPs and senators agree on this new status for school principals, administrative and material assistance that may be granted, “when the size or specificities of the school warrant it”, makes again debate. Members are in favor of the state and municipalities provide this help. For senators, this skill must meet only the state. A joint joint commission must allow them to agree on a common text soon.