The president of the Federation of Teaching Unions, who will retire in June 2024, considers that teaching is one of the most beautiful professions in the world, but that it is also a sick profession.
“What we like is to see the student learn, to see the student progress and, in the last few years, that had no longer become important,” affirmed Josée Scalabrini at the ’emission The Balance Sheet.
According to her, governments have had management focused on statistics and results, which hinders teaching and does not meet the needs of the student.
“This is why we need a dialogue, a very, very close dialogue between our government leaders and the people who represent teachers. We have to work together, and we started to do that during teaching,” she underlined.
With her 35 years of teaching, she has known nine Ministers of Education, including seven in eleven years as President of the Federation.
If teaching is “one of the most beautiful professions in the world”, according to Mme Scalabrini, “it’s also a profession that is sick,” she continued.
“I don’t know any teacher who goes to bed with their collective agreement in the evening. The teacher thinks about his class, and what is heavy in his class, [ce sont] the students in great difficulty, all the evaluation that we have to do and the violence and incivility that we face on a daily basis,” she assured.
However, the one who became a teacher by accident leaves her position with hope.
“It is in this sense that I wanted to fight for teachers, and that I feel that there is a new generation who will continue,” she added.
Watch the full interview in the video above.
