An experienced school teacher, Anne has been teaching since the start of the 2022 school year at Lavelanet in the priority education network. She recounts her obstacle course to gain access to a school doctor and considers her students abandoned by the public authorities.
At the end of the line, Anne* is exhausted. As the end of the school year approaches, his morale is at an all-time low: “I confess that I am thinking more and more seriously of resigning.” A school teacher for more than twenty years, she has been teaching, since the start of the 2022 school year, in a CE1 class in a priority education network in Lavelanet. “I started my career in the Paris region in what were still called ZEPs at the time (priority education zones). I know this public. But what I have seen for a year, I don’t I’ve never been confronted with it”, confides the forties.
In front of her, 15 students – instead of 12 in the split classes – at the worrying school level. To this, family, economic but also health problems accumulate, often linked. “Many tell me regularly that they don’t see well. In others, I suspect hearing problems. Some don’t eat enough and many have learning problems.” In early November, the teacher contacted the school doctor: “I sent him an email to ask him to intervene with six students whose situation seemed critical to me, while mentioning problems for four more.” No answer. On December 9, she repeated her request, then relaunched in January.
“It is shameful !”
Finally, in February, Anne learns that to contact school medicine, a referral must be made: March, nothing happened and I am going back to writing the requests again, modifying them slightly in view of the evolution of the class and the students. On March 25, a paper mail with the form is sent for follow-up. At the beginning of May, when I returned from spring break, still no response.
Anne approached an elected official from the town hall to tell him of her powerlessness and to ask for his intervention to bring in a doctor by another means. Unhappy with the situation, the man told him that he had no control over the situation. “I have been asking for the intervention of a school doctor for six months and I have had no response. In REP, a medical visit is compulsory in CE2, but until then we are wasting a lot of time on diagnoses. C is double punishment for these children. It’s shameful!”
A testimony that is not surprising on the union side: “In Ariège, we have only two school doctors, reveals Antoine Loguillard, UNSA Education regional secretary. The academy is informed of the situation, but is struggling to recruit. School medicine is a disaster sector in Ariège and more generally throughout France.” Contacted, the Directorate of Departmental Services of National Education of Ariège did not respond to our requests.
In ten years, the number of school doctors has fallen by 20%. In 2021, in France, there were 900 school doctors for 12 million students. That is to say one doctor for 13,000 students: “This data largely explains the silence that I encounter, believes Anne. But this observation remains odious because in many places, and in particular in Lavelanet, school medicine turns out to be the only way to access specialized follow-up for families in very poor financial and material circumstances.”
According to MP Robin Reda, who presented a parliamentary report in May: “There are 300 vacancies for school doctors in the country.” A shortage due in large part to the lack of attraction of medical students for these positions: “The salary does not attract, it must be said that the pay differential between a general practitioner and a doctor employed by national education is substantial , argues Antoine Loguillard. In the Toulouse academy, since January, we no longer have an occupational doctor. The last one retired at more than 70 years old and no one rushed to come and replace him. “