Catholic education is preparing to integrate certain teachers

“The unions are united and our doors are wide open to colleagues who come from Averroès”, summarizes Nadia Claës-Beck. The general secretary of Sep-CFDT, the Catholic education union for the Lille academy, was not in the street on Tuesday March 26, alongside the CGT and Sundep-Solidaires, mobilized for the future of teachers at the Averroès high school in Lille.

However, Nadia Claës-Beck knows them well and even contacted them one by one. Because many could, in September, return to private Catholic education, if at least they accept its principles and values. “They share the same status as public officials as us. It is therefore our network which must integrate them as a priority,” explains Nadia Claës-Beck.

Indeed, for the moment, the future of the teachers of this Muslim high school is uncertain. The fate of the establishment is in the hands of the Council of State, which must rule on the decision to withdraw the high school's association contract with the State, taken by the Northern prefecture in December 2023. If it is confirmed, then the start of the school year will not take place in Averroès in September.

Thirty-three requests

Hence the urgency of finding a base for teachers, “just in case”. The movement is already largely underway with Catholic teaching. In detail, of the 33 teachers in Averroès, 19 have already applied for transfer and 10 have obtained approval. This pass is imperative: it is awarded to candidates judged to be sufficiently in agreement with the project of Catholic teaching.

Their files will be sent to the academic employment commission, the internal body responsible for distributing positions. “Each candidate will be offered an assignment in the academy, in order linked to their status: the incumbent state public employees will first be reclassified, then the winners of the competition, then the permanent contracts and finally the deputy masters, this that is to say the replacements”, further details Nadia Claës-Beck. A commission met on Friday, there will be others, but “It is time for interested candidates to come forward, because these movements take a long time.”

How many will ultimately take the plunge? Impossible to say at the moment. The only certainty is that some teachers will instead turn to public education. But nothing is moving on that front for the moment. “The Lille rectorate says nothing because it is undoubtedly waiting for a final court decision before tackling the problem,” plague Frédéric Fléchon, academic co-secretary of Sundep-Solidaires. Contacted by The cross, Averroès' lawyers say they have no visibility.