“It’s about time someone finally paid attention to the IUFMs!” This heartfelt outcry comes from Claire, a 24-year-old first-year student at the University Institute for Teacher Training in Nice. “This is an opportunity to adapt the teacher’s exam. Currently, only knowledge is evaluated, not pedagogical skills, which are very important today.” Refreshing an education that needs to evolve with the times. This is also the opinion of Mohamed Najmi, the director of the Cรฉlestin Freinet IUFM in Nice: “It’s a decision we’ve been waiting for a long time.”
However, yesterday, when presenting the educational reforms, President Nicolas Sarkozy did not mention the word IUFM once. Their demise seems planned: in the long run, teacher training will only be provided by the university. This is, at least, what the reform planned for implementation in the autumn of 2010 anticipates. Today, after a bachelor’s degree (minimum three years of study), students enter the IUFM where they prepare for the teaching exam for a year. If they pass it, they stay for another year at the IUFM, a year dedicated to practical experience as paid interns. In the project presented yesterday by Nicolas Sarkozy, future teachers would be recruited with a Master’s degree, at bachelor +5 level. After their first year of training, if they passed the exam, they would go directly into teaching, under the mentorship of experienced teachers.
“Paying Teachers Better”
“In fact, it will be about studying more to earn more,” jokes Claire. “Many teachers complain that they are not paid enough. I myself got into education knowing that I would never become a millionaire. With a Master’s degree instead of a bachelor’s, the salary scales will be reassessed, which is not a bad thing.”
The director of the Nice IUFM has a meeting scheduled on Thursday with the teachers’ and students’ unions. He has already heard the rumors, and he feels his students are somewhat ambivalent about the issue. “For most, increasing the level of studies means that the profession is being valued. They are therefore pleased about it. But many regret the planned scrapping of the second year at the IUFM, as it removes a necessary part of professional training.” Mohamed Najmi thus hopes that the mentor system will be effective and that the teachers will know how to guide and support their young colleagues: “It is inconceivable to go teach children in difficulty without experience and practice.”
End of IUFMs and transition of training to the university? “Whatever Nicolas Sarkozy announced, we have to deal with it and put the IUFMs at the service of a more efficient and adaptable logic,” thinks Mohamed Najmi. Especially since the process of integrating the IUFMs into the university system has already been slowly taking place since 2006.
