Rise of the “Contractuel”: Temporary Teaching Positions Becoming Standard in French Schools
Paris – A growing reliance on contract teachers, or contractuels, is fundamentally reshaping the landscape of french education, moving beyond a temporary fix for staffing shortages to a permanent feature of the system. While the overall quantitative impact remains limited, a new sociological study reveals a meaningful shift: contract positions are no longer viewed as anomalies awaiting regularization, but as a complementary form of employment alongside the traditional tenured status.
This trend, impacting both primary and secondary schools, signals a dualization of the teaching profession, creating a divide between secure, permanent insiders and a growing segment of educators with less stability and fewer protections. The shift isn’t driven by factors like school demographics or regional attractiveness, but primarily by an increase in teaching hours, according to research by sociologist Xavier Dumay. This has significant implications for the future of the profession, possibly impacting teacher quality, equity, and the long-term stability of the French education system.
The study challenges previous understandings of contractualisation in education, noting that unlike past instances where temporary contracts were used to manage major systemic changes, the current growth doesn’t align with such clear justifications.”The contemporary trajectory of progress of contractualisation does not correspond, unlike what (socio-)historians of education had observed, to major stages in the development of the school system which justified the temporary recourse to more flexible forms of employment to absorb the changes,” explains Dumay.
This evolution marks a “institutional leakage,” where established norms – social dialogue, labor laws, salary scales - paradoxically allow for substantial, yet subtle, transformations in employment practices. Dumay defines this as a situation where the contract position is no longer a temporary step towards tenure, but “a complementary form of employment to the status of permanent employees.”
The trend extends beyond education; in 2023, over 23.3% of all French public sector employees were contract workers, according to INSEE data. The increasing prevalence of contractuels in education raises concerns about the long-term consequences of a two-tiered system, and what it means for the future of teaching in France.
