CNR: government wants to reward “innovative” teachers

As Emmanuel Macron relaunches the National Reconstruction Council (CNR), teachers’ unions are reacting strongly to the Ministry of Education’s proposal to create a bonus for educational innovation at a college in Aix-en-Provence on Monday evening.

It was primarily a matter of method that everyone announced that they would boycott the meeting scheduled for Tuesday at the ministry. “We received the draft texts aimed at creating this bonus on Monday morning for consultation on Tuesday morning. Texts cannot be learned in such a short time! », believes Sophie Vénétitay, general secretary of SNES-FSU. The ministry finally acceded to the unions’ demand on Monday evening to remove the issue from the agenda of the next ministerial technical committee – a discussion body between the ministry and the unions – scheduled for December 13.

Six reward levels

However, the two relevant texts obtained by “Les Echos” can be put on the agenda of the next meeting. The draft decree “On determining the allowance for the educational innovation mission allocated to the employees participating in the project within the framework of the educational innovation fund” is therefore medium (500 euros, 750 euros, 250 euros, 750 euros, 1000 euros, 1250 euros).

His departure will be determined by the rectors and will take effect on January 1. The compensation will apply to “Ministry of Education staff” working in schools, colleges and high schools, including private institutions on contract basis, but will not apply to supervisory staff. Those who intervened in the “project within the framework of the educational innovation fund” would be paid. Its amount will take into account “the effective importance of the relevant mission and the conditions of implementation.” The bonus will be paid every academic year.

Skepticism of school leaders

The government’s proposal comes at a time when SNPDEN, the main head teachers’ union, is skeptical of the discussions under the CNR. “We don’t really believe in this format, we lived through these provisions a few years ago,” its secretary general Bruno Bobkiewicz explained to France Info on Monday. He specifically noted the difficulty of “true synthesis [avec de tels débats] because at school everyone has their own opinion and sometimes they are very different. However, there are already consultative bodies with the participation of trade unions, and that is enough.” “We didn’t wait for this particular initiative to work with our student and parent representatives and listen to what they expect locally in terms of the operation of the facility,” he said, still fuming.

According to the Minister of National Education, “more than a thousand consultations” have been held since the beginning of October, and 12 thousand schools and institutions have announced their “intention” to organize meetings in the CNR mode. At the end of last week, Pap Ndiaye assured that the first projects “will be ready in early 2023”. According to him, the goal is to “snowball” so that all enterprises commit to it within five years.

“Competitive Tender”

Equipped with 500 million euros over five years, the education innovation fund should finance projects that will originate from or receive support from various CNRs. For SNES-FSU, this is a “form of competition between teachers” that “will serve the department more than advancing the field of reassessment.” The government has slammed SNALC for “trying to get colleagues to brag about the success of the innovation fund”. “Pedagogical innovation in itself does not have a higher value than non-innovation, it is about the pedagogical freedom of each. [enseignant] to choose the methods that seem most suitable to him, ”he said.

Negotiations between the trade unions and the ministry on improving the qualifications of teachers should resume in January.