Guadeloupe to cut 107 teacher positions at start of 2024 school year

This, as every year, is news that frightens the national education staff: in the next academic year, in September 2024, there will be further cuts in teaching positions at the academy.
And, like every year, the rectorate justifies this decision by the decrease in the number of students in primary and secondary education.
In its press release, the management is pleased to “Observation rates have evolved positively over ten years.”.

While teacher unions continue to demand more human resources at Guadalupe Academy, the opposite phenomenon is observed from one year to the next.
Declining student numbers in the Archipelago's institutions has been a constant argument of the rectorate to justify cuts in staff numbers.

Over a decade, the education sector would have recorded a drop in school enrollment of more than 20,000 students in the public sector, or more than a fifth, a drop of 25% in primary education and 16.5% in secondary education. .

Press release from Guadeloupe's education sector

So, we're talking about a total of 1,246 fewer students at the start of 2024, including 502 school children and 744 middle and high school students.

This number inevitably impacts on the provision of teaching resources.
This calculation is condemned by trade unions, who want to talk about the required quality of education and not just the statistics.

Knowing that we're in a field with very complex situations, we can't staff based on demographics alone. % of our youth leave the education system without a diploma (…). Instead, primary schools should take advantage of the fall in numbers to offer classes at Cp and CE1 in larger divisions.

Eddy Ségur, General Secretary of FSU Guadeloupe

For teacher representatives, it is a question of fighting against the decline in educational standards and academic failure in academia.

The National Education Management Community Committee met on Thursday, December 21, to decide on the resources to be allocated to government schools at the start of the next academic year.

In 1^{There is} degree (Nursery and Primary Schools), Guadeloupe will lose 52 seats.
In fact, population decline (up to 1.4%) should have led to the elimination of 69 teaching jobs. But 17 posts are reserved for the territory to allow work through the status committee.

Taking into account the needs of different working groups does not satisfy the FSU; For the union, this action should be extended to the entire territory.

If the whole of the academy had been included in primary education, almost 200 posts would have had to be created, the separation of classes would have been a long time ago, and we would have been fighting it for a long time. School failure. At our Archipelago Academy based in Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthélemy, we can't be satisfied with crumbs! We should have had more resources!

Eddy Ségur, General Secretary of FSU Guadeloupe

In the second degree (middle and high schools), where the loss of students was 1.9%; Archipelago has to do without 55 postsIncluding 5 full-time equivalents of Annual Overtime (ETP HSA).

This is very bad news! Especially, Education Minister Mr. Is it not true that this year, once again, we are facing 107 layoffs when Atal* is announcing that they must carry out a knowledge shock to ensure student monitoring? Last year we had 131 layoffs. This bleeding continues in our territory.

Teddy Duncans, Education Secretary of SNCL Guadeloupe

*Read more: By 2024, “a third of job creation” for teachers in secondary education will be overseas, Gabriel Attal promises – 12/21/2023.

Our academy is always placed in the top three among the best supervised academies.

Press release from Guadeloupe's education sector

The SNCL union disagreed on the matter.

This is the average taken. Weighing the crowded classes that can be had at Guadeloupe and the much smaller numbers that can be found at Les Saintes, La Desirade, the average says we have a good staffing ratio. But this is not the reality on the ground.

Teddy Duncans, Education Secretary of SNCL Guadeloupe

As a reminder, last September, all students in CP, CE1, CM1, 6ᵉ and 4ᵉ took a French and Maths test to measure their academic standing. Young foreign residents, including Guadeloupeans, lag significantly behind those in France.