CHECK – Do teachers work “24 hours a week, six months of the year”?

He wanted to present “facts” but above all spread preconceived ideas. Invited this Friday, November 8 to the “Meetings of the Future”, Nicolas Sarkozy attacked the status of the school teacher. “It’s 24 hours a week, six months of the year”he said on the platform, accusing certain teachers of choosing this profession “for the wrong reasons.” “We must tell the truth”, he even insisted.

Half the working time in front of the students

On the National Education website (new window)the job descriptions only provide information on the time included in “the regulatory service obligation”. Namely the number of hours a teacher must spend in front of his board. Or 24 hours per week in nursery and elementary then 18 hours per week (new window) in secondary school. However, it is also recalled that apart from these “service obligations”, professionals must organize a “preparation and correction time”without specifying the duration.

However, it is precisely over this period that the former President of the Republic ironically jokes, being surprised that we can talk about “prepare lessons in nursery and senior section”. As the ministry points out, beyond the correction of copies and the preparation of courses, it is also necessary to take into account “school meetings and relationships with parents”. These activities “are not taken into account in the regulatory service obligation”.

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So what do we know about “effective” working time in the profession? According to a report published in October 2022 by the Directorate of Evaluation, Foresight and Performance (Depp), school teachers and primary school teachers spend more than half of their working time in front of children (59 %). For secondary school teachers, this proportion drops to 49%.

While nearly 40% of their working time is devoted to preparing lessons, correcting notebooks and personal documentation, 11% of their time is taken up by teamwork and relationships with parents. , participation in the school council and educational training. So much so that when we add this series of tasks, half of French teachers work more than 43 hours per week, according to the same source. (new window).

As for knowing how much leave they can benefit from, here too, the information from the former head of state is somewhat misleading. Of the sixteen weeks of school leave available to school teachers, half of them work at least 34 days, or between six and seven weeks, “in particular for preparation and correction tasks”. A reality that is much truer among young teachers, who devote more days to these preparations, than among the most experienced. Half of primary school teachers aged over 45 say they work 27 days during the holidays.

In summary, the argument that teachers would work “24 hours a week, six months of the year”is a preconceived idea largely refuted by the figures from the latest study on the issue. Please note, however, that these data are based on a purely declarative study and that they can vary widely depending on the situations of each professional.

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