2023-05-03 04:00:00
A teacher in secondary and higher education, Joachim had the unpleasant surprise to find that several of his periods of leave were planed this year, due to the new school calendar adopted in compulsory education. He does not understand why this reform is not yet applied uniformly to all levels of study.
“I lost almost all of my holidays this year”, launches a teacher, via the orange button Alert us. Joachim teaches in secondary and higher education. And this year, with the exception of the Christmas holidays, no holiday coincides entirely in the two levels of study. This partly concerns the All Saints and Carnival holidays: an extra week in secondary school, but above all the entirety of those of Easter. “When there are lessons in secondary school, there are no lessons in high school and when there are lessons in high school, there are no lessons in secondary school“.
The interest of the students is also to have teachers who are in good shape
Above all, he wishes to denounce this situation, which he considers “absurd”: “We end up with a year that never stops, where there is never really a break and that is very problematic. There is always one or two classes that fall in the middle of bowling”.
The Doctor of Philosophy teaches political and social philosophy in a high school in Charleroi. He also teaches religion classes at the Technical Institute of Namur in secondary five and six. For him, the main consequence of this lack of standardization of leave is “the fatigue that sets in, the risk of burnout”. He also points to organizational difficulties, in terms of pace and quality of life.
“Who wouldn’t be annoyed when they are told that from one year to the next, their holidays finally disappear? Holidays are also times of rest necessary to be able to give correct and quality education. It’s no use to anyone “To have teachers on edge in front of their class, this also poses pedagogical problems in terms of the quality of teaching. The interest of the students is also to have teachers who are in good shape”he says.
We are constantly forced to tinker with the organization
For him, “we did not think of the special cases of teachers who teach at two levels of education, nor did we think of the parents of students who have children enrolled in Flanders” and he is surprised “that we take as much time to harmonize school rhythms between secondary and higher education”. “This creates situations where we are constantly forced to tinker at the organizational level”.
On a personal level, he was able to find a solution with his two departments: “They are very understanding. I was able to talk about it with them and explain things to them and indeed we were able to find agreements to postpone certain classes to have at least a certain number of holidays which are respected and so that we do not have more this phenomenon of lag But, it is case by case and it takes time”.
Joachim considers that this reform of rhythms should have been harmonized from the start: between the different levels of education but also between the different communities: “The consultation should have taken place before taking the decision, so that everyone can enter fully into the same rhythm. Here, we still find ourselves with a political world which makes decisions which are problematic for the citizens”.
We presented the case of Joachim to the cabinets of the two French-speaking Ministers of Education.
The office of the Minister of Education, Caroline Désir, believes that an adaptation of school timetables at all levels would be a good thing, but recalls “that he has no control over it”. He further asserts that “many teachers find the reform positive for learning”.
On the side of the cabinet of Valérie Glatigny, the Minister of Higher Education, it is assured that a working group dedicated to ARES, the Academy of Research and Higher Education, is looking into the reform of the academic calendar.
It is important that a reform of such magnitude first obtain a consensus from the actors
“A first draft calendar was drawn up by this working group at the beginning of this year: it provided for greater alignment between compulsory and higher education holidays”.
He adds that “the information phase with the actors in the field brought up difficulties, in particular for the universities and the FEF, the Federation of Francophone Students”.
The work is therefore continuing, but the firm emphasizes “that it is important that a reform of such magnitude, which does not only concern the alignment of holidays but the whole organization of the academic year: courses, exams, first of all achieves a consensus actors”.