On August 19, over 217,000 young Reunionese returned to school. As every year, it was the same ritual hiding the underlying problem: school failure, which feeds unemployment and thus poverty, as well as illiteracy. This situation fosters the underdevelopment essential to keeping the Reunionnese under the economic, cultural and intellectual dependence of French neo-colonialism.
The start of the new school year was marked by one change. There was no visit from the Minister of Education. The absence of an appointed government allowed this saving of public money. In 2024, the Reunionese were not the extras in the usual Parisian communication operation, 15 days before the start of the school year in France.
Every year, the same problems arise in the current context. The most high-profile is that of the unwanted transfers of teachers living on La Reunion Island and appointed in France immediately after passing the Ministry of Education’s recruitment exam.

Trainees are not entitled to the extra 1000 points

For the start of the 2024 school year, 10 of the teachers concerned were able to remain on our island. As every year, this is the result of case-by-case management at the whim of the French administration. This is not surprising. The winners of the competitive examination know, before they apply, that they are taking the risk of being posted in France to academies that are not very popular with French teachers. This is all the more true as, as trainees rather than full-timers, they cannot benefit from the additional 1000 points available if they apply for a work in La Réunion. These 1000 points are equivalent to more than 20 years’ service in a priority education zone. This explains why, among the teachers working in France and obtaining a transfer to our country, those from La Réunion are largely represented.
In addition to family ties, one argument put forward for keeping these trainee teachers in our country is to improve the performance of the national education system in La Réunion. With their Creole language skills and knowledge of our country, these new teachers can make an undeniable contribution to the fight against school failure.

For a teaching staff in tune with our Creole-French bilingualism

For this problem to be solved, changes are needed. Since 2007, the Reunionnese Communist Party has been advocating a moratorium on the transfer of teachers from France. This will enable us to offer more jobs to Reunionese who are motivated by the vocation of teaching on their island.
It’s worth noting that in most countries, the teaching staff is essentially made up of local people. This is understandable from a pedagogical point of view: they master the mother tongue. But on our island, it’s a language other than the mother tongue - French - that is used as the compulsory medium of instruction from elementary school onwards, with no prior learning as a foreign language for Creole speakers. This does not recognize the bilingual Creole-French character of our society.
Under these conditions, the moratorium will help to improve the performance of the education system in La Réunion. The language barrier will no longer exist between new teachers and learners.

Placing the Réunionese learner at the center of the educational system

This moratorium could be supplemented by compulsory Creole language training for non-Creole-speaking teachers already working in La Réunion Island. In this way, by mastering both Creole and French, teachers will be in tune with our bilingualism. This will make it easier for them to communicate with students who have great difficulty using French. This will be an asset in reducing the school failure rate, which is responsible for wasting part of the potential of La Reunion’s youth.
These proposals are a reminder that, to be effective, an education system must be built with the learner at its heart. A young Reunionese has an identity that is different from that of a young living in another country. Taking this into account will inevitably lead to a reduction in school failure.
But going down this road presupposes a major change in mentalities impregnated by decades of French neo-colonialism in La Réunion. This is based on the realization that Réunionese are capable of developing the island by raising the level of education.
It also presupposes overcoming the resistance to change of the class of beneficiaries of French neo-colonialism: will they agree that the general interest should take precedence over their particular interests?

M.M.