One of the reasons I enjoy playing soccer so much here isn’t because I’m good, or because it gives me much needed exercise, but rather because of the breaks that we take. We go into the ocean and just unwind, and we talk about all sorts of things. Today, I found out something about the French school system that surprised me. Now France isn’t exactly known for its academic excellence in the developed world, but of course, neither is my home country, so I can’t really throw stones (lest I break the glass walls).But as an example, when I showed Dominique the sections of a sixth-grade U.S. History textbook that talked about slavery and the slave trade, she was quite surprised at just how much discussion there was of it. France, despite its large slave industry in lands that are still politically part of France, doesn’t cover slavery in nearly that much depth, a fact that rankles many of my friends here, especially given the economic sluggishness that continues to plague the former slave colonies.
But I was really shocked to find out that teachers in France can pretty much take off whenever they want, and there is no substitute teacher. Now this isn’t to say that they can take off as much as they want, but they get way more time off than U.S. teachers. It’s not until a teacher is gone for at least two weeks —two freakin’ weeks!— that they start to look for substitutes. Compare this to the U.S., where every course is supposed to be supervised, and substitutes go from class to class, overseeing what are supposed to be quiet days. France has on its payroll people who are listed as substitute teachers, but apparently, a lot of them have been assigned to full-time positions instead, in order to save money —this despite the fact that education is the largest part of the French budget (I’m not sure where education is in the U.S. budget if you combine the states’ and the nation’s budgets, but I’m quite certain that it’s not the largest part).
Apparently, it’s even worse here in French Guiana. Those of you who are regular readers and have a very good memory might recall that I mentioned in or around Post 100 that most of French Guiana’s teachers don’t come from here, but rather come from France or the French Antilles (Guadeloupe, Martinique), and they come for short periods of time to take advantage of the 40% salary hike that government employees get for working here. As one might imagine, they are not inherently invested in the success and well-being of these students, at least not in the same way as teachers in the mainland, who do not bounce around from region to region, since the economic incentives to bounce around France do not exist. I heard of a teacher who took Fridays off, with no substitute to cover her courses. Joris had a French teacher who was gone for 3 months, and was still not replaced. I’m not saying that these teachers should have been fired (actually I am, but that’s not my main point), but rather, that students shouldn’t be allowed to fall so far behind. It is unreal.
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