One year of school lost.
Why?
Because, in French public schools, when a teacher is absent, he or she is generally not replaced.
The result:
no class.
Students, of course lose out on lessons.
But that is not all.
Absent teachers mean less adults in the school.
Absent teachers send a message to children that presence is, contrary to what adults SAY, not really all that important.
Absent teachers mean more work in more difficult conditions for teachers who are present.
Absent teachers mean more inequality.
What does the failure to replace absent teachers have to do with rising inequality in France?
Children from better off families FLEE to private schools (which have huge waiting lists), which miraculously manage to replace absent teachers.
Children from better off families are able to COMPENSATE for absent teachers by helping the children with schoolwork in the home or even hiring tutors.
Thus the gap between the education achievements between the haves and the have nots widen.
As a result, the HALDE, the French organization to track and combat discrimination, has FILED SUIT in the poor, riot-prone 93 department for the failure to replace absent teachers.
Why are teachers absent? And why are so many absences (81% of 48 h absences) grouped around weekends?
Well, it almost doesn't matter... What's important is that France's immense National Education establishment fails to replace them.
The non-replacement of absent teachers--not PR gimmicks like "sensitizing" three year olds to English-- should be Education Minister Luc Chatel's TOP priority.
Solve this problem, and others will solve themselves.
