Be it changes to curriculum, a staffing crisis or a potential strike, teachers are facing unprecedented uncertainty as they prepare to welcome twelve million pupils back at school this week.
Outgoing Education Minister Nicole Belloubet – who visited two schools on Monday – told reporters she was happy with the way things were turning out.
"I don't deny that here and there, a few teachers are absent, but in the vast majority of situations, the teachers are there and that is fortunate," she told France Inter radio.
One of the hot topics of the month is the recruitment issue – with 3,000 teaching posts in both public and private sectors not filled.
Despite this confidence, Catherine Nave-Bekhti, of the CFDT Education union says teachers were feeling especially nervous due to the unprecented political crisis and the fact that a new Education Minister has not been named.
Level groups
More than 850,000 teachers returned to their primary, secondary and high schools on Friday, a few days before their students tasked with fine-tuning back-to-school plans.
One of the other challenges they face is organising "level groups" for French and mathematics in middle school classes, a reform launched by outgoing Prime Minister Gabriel Attal when he was Education Minister.
This came after a 2022 Pisa study revealed a "historic" decline in French students' proficiency in mathematics and a significant drop in reading comprehension.
Marian Petitfils, a mathematics teacher at a college in the Paris region, told RFI that this policy has been "largely rejected at the ballot box" and criticised by parents and teachers alike.
Karine Nazury, head of a middle school in the Nice academy, agrees that trying to organise smaller groups for struggling students is like a "puzzle" and the resources are not available.
Another issue is the modification to the national exam for the end of middle school known as le brevet.
Attal's government wanted to make obtaining the diploma (DNB) mandatory to enter senior high school, but the decree has been "suspended", Belloubet announced on Tuesday.
Attal had also proposed to increase the share of exams in the final result (60 percent instead of 50 percent currently) and to take into account all year subjects in the remaining 40 percent.
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For Jérôme Fournier of the SE-Unsa teachers' union, changing the rules during the year would be "unacceptable and unthinkable".
Belloubet has suggested postponing any changes until the new school year in September 2025.
Phone ban
The outgoing government also chose to implement a ban on mobile phones at school for pupils up to the age of 15, arguing that pupils need a "digital pause" during school times.
The measure will first be tested in a few schools, then could be rolled out nationwide from January.
Almost 200 secondary schools will take part in the experiment, with youngsters required to hand over phones on arrival at reception.
In 2018, a first law banned pupils at primary and secondary schools from using their phones on the premises but allowed them to keep possession of them.
This measure follows the recommendations of the "screens" commission, commissioned by President Emmanuel Macron, but has prompted skepticism from the unions.
Urgent matters
Meanwhile, some 90 schools have volunteered for a full-scale experiment of school uniforms, starting this Monday.
Others will follow in January.
First lady Brigitte Macron, a former drama teacher, has backed the introduction of school uniforms.
But the measure doesn't have the full support of teachers or parents' groups nationwide and there is push back over the cost.
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Sophie Vénétitay, Secretary General of the SNES union, told RFI that she is concerned thes topics are overshadowing the real emergencies.
"Today, we don't know where we're going, we don't know who our contacts are and, above all, during this time, the crisis is getting worse," she said.
She pointed to urgent matters including the question of salaries and working conditions.
"Very quickly, we will need someone to deal with these issues, because we will very quickly discuss the 2025 budget," she insisted.
Three unions have called for a strike day on 10 September to protest against the proposed reforms.
(with newswires)
