Teacher training institutes (IFM) used to be safe havens for young people seeking employment, especially Malian school and university students. Alas! Nowadays, IFMs benefit generalists more than specialists. As proof, the number of unemployed is steadily increasing among the latter. What a ticking time bomb! Every year, IFMs train thousands of teachers, fifteen thousand (15,000) in 2014. Local government employees can now only absorb a tiny fraction of the specialists. Consequently, graduating classes pile up without any real hope. For example, out of fifteen thousand graduates in 2014, nearly 2,000 generalist and specialist teachers were recruited. In 2012, only a thousand were admitted out of 4,000 applicants; In 2016, 3,668 were recruited out of nearly 2,000 general practitioners. As for private schools, it’s difficult to find a place despite talent. Connections often prevail. Worse still, working conditions and pay are generally precarious, at around 1,000 CFA francs per hour for years, without any improvement. Isn’t it possible for the government to take measures to ensure that private schools recruit qualified teachers and provide them with better working conditions? Until then, we can say that this situation is a ticking time bomb. These young people are increasingly mobilizing to demand their rights.
