Jean-Michel Blanquer challenged by a new return to school under the seal of the health crisis

Terms of the start of the school year, closing of classes, health protocol, revaluation of salaries … As every year, the Minister of National Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, presents, this Thursday at a long-awaited press conference, the start of the school year. year 2021-2022, once again under the seal of the health crisis.

This meeting, scheduled for the end of the morning, should allow him to answer the questions that still loom over the return on September 2 in the classes of 12.4 million students and 866,500 teachers, at a time when traffic of the Delta variant is causing concern for the school.

Higher salaries for young teachers

For a return to school “as normal as possible”, the ministry has opted for scenario 2 (out of four) of the health protocol, allowing all students to be received face to face. In addition to the health component, Jean-Michel Blanquer is expected on the issue of teachers’ salaries. He must detail Thursday the new increase of 245 million euros in 2022 announced at the end of May. According to the unions received Wednesday evening by the minister, “bonuses ranging from 57 euros net per month for the youngest to 29 euros for mid-career” has been validated for next year.

At the end of May, the minister put forward an objective: “To arrive as quickly as possible at 2,000 euros net per month for the youngest teachers”. This return also marks the home stretch for Jean-Michel Blanquer at the head of National Education at the end of his five-year term, after four years and three months spent in rue de Grenelle, one of the longest courses in history at this post.

Three years of reforms

After three years of drastic reforms, which alienated part of the teaching staff, the minister, reappointed a year ago with an enlarged perimeter, will once again have to manage a delicate return to school. “According to him, Minister Blanquer’s record will be a school in profound transformation and on the right track.” According to the staff, the results will be a school deeply shaken up and professions in loss of direction where it is necessary to act quickly with top-down instructions which pile up and come up against a real different from the speeches ”, regretted Stéphane Crochet, secretary general of the SE-Unsa.

According to Stéphane Crochet, this minister “described as coming from civil society was from the outset a completely political minister and knowing completely how to master his speech on school, which I describe as a speech of taking back control of the school. “. “The presidential campaign will start quickly after the start of the school year and it is imperative that the school is at the heart of the debates,” said Sophie Vénétitay, general secretary of Snes-FSU, the first secondary school union.