The Certificat d'aptitude au professorat de l'enseignement du second degré (lit. Certificate of aptitude for secondary school teachers, CAPES) is a professional diploma from the
French Ministry of National Education, Higher Education and Research. It is awarded to candidates who, after passing the tests of a recruitment competition (external, internal or third competition), have been admitted to the professional qualification examination.
The CAPES constitutes, with the assistance of the
agrégation
In France, the ''agrégation'' () is a competitive examination for civil service in the French public education system. Candidates for the examination, or ''agrégatifs'', become ''agrégés'' once they are admitted to the position of ''professe ...
, registration on the list of suitable candidates and secondment, one of the ways to obtain the title of a full qualified professor for secondary degree. Since 2010, certified teachers must simultaneously validate the CAPES exams and a
master's degree
A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice. . They are then trainee
civil servants
The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...
for one year (general rule applied to all civil servants).
The CAPES allows them to teach in both general and technological secondary schools (including
BTS
BTS (), also known as the Bangtan Boys, is a South Korean boy band formed in 2010 and debuting in 2013 under Big Hit Entertainment. The septet—consisting of members Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V, and Jungkook—co-writes and co-produ ...
), as well as sometimes in universities (PRCE status). For the purposes of service, certified teachers may be asked to do part of their service in a vocational lycée. The certificate of aptitude for teaching at the secondary level in contract private schools (CAFEP) is the equivalent of the CAPES for teaching in contract private schools.
History
CAPES was created in 1950 to recruit
teacher
A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching.
''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...
s for public general and technical secondary schools. It succeeds the certificate of aptitude for teaching in collèges (CAEC) created in 1941 (collèges then led to the baccalaureate, alongside state lycées).
At that time it concerned the following subjects:
*Plastic arts;
*Musical education and choral singing;
*Philosophy;
*Modern literature;
*Classics;
*History-geography;
*Modern languages (Arabic, Chinese, Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, English, Hebrew, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish);
*Mathematics;
*Physics and chemistry;
*Economic and social sciences;
*Life and earth sciences;
*Physical and sports education.
The CAPES of documentation was created in 1989 by
Lionel Jospin
Lionel Robert Jospin (; born 12 July 1937) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 1997 to 2002.
Jospin was First Secretary of the Socialist Party from 1995 to 1997 and the party's candidate for President of France in ...
, then Minister of National Education, for the recruitment of
Teacher-librarian
A teacher-librarian or school librarian or school library media specialist (SLMS) is a certified librarian who also has training in teaching.
According to the American Association of School Librarians (AASL), a division of the American Library Ass ...
.
The CAPES Coordination Pédagogique et Ingénierie de la Formation was created in 2000 by
Michel Sapin
Michel Sapin (; born 9 April 1952 is a French politician who served as Minister of Finance from 1992 to 1993 and again from 2014 to 2017. He is a member of the Socialist Party.
He was Minister of the Civil Service from 2000 to 2002 and Minis ...
, Minister of Civil Service and State Reform (2000–2002) in the Lionel Jospin government.
1991-2009
From 1991 to 2009, the certificate was obtained in two years after the licence:
*At the end of the first year of
IUFM, success in the external competition (open to holders of a bac+3 level diploma).
*A second year of IUFM, combining IUFM training (approximately two days per week) and "responsibility internship" in front of classes (from 4 h to 6 h of classes per week until June 2006, then from 6 h to 8 h of classes per week from the beginning of the 2006 school year).
An academic jury (chaired by the Rector) delivered the professional qualification examination, which fully validated the certificate of aptitude (CAPES) and allowed tenure in the corps of certified teachers.
Since 2010
Candidates for the competition must now obtain a master's degree to validate their CAPES. The two courses are simultaneous. At the end of their year of training, the teacher therefore has at least a level of bac +5.
The CAPES in Classical Letters is abolished in 2013, and merged with the CAPES in Modern Letters to give the CAPES in Letters.
The Ministry of National Education announced in 2014 the creation of an IT option for the external CAPES and the CAFEP-CAPES in mathematics from the 2017 session of the competitive examination.
On the occasion of her visit to Japan,
Najat Vallaud-Belkacem
Najat Vallaud-Belkacem (; ar, link=no, نجاة فالو بلقاسم; Riffian-Berber: ⵏⴰⵊⴰⵜ ⴱⵍⵇⴰⵙⵎ; born 4 October 1977) is a former Moroccan- French jurist and politician of the Socialist Party (PS) who was the first Fr ...
, Minister of National Education, announced in 2016 the creation of a CAPES in Japanese.
The CAPES in classical and modern literature are reinstated by an order published in the ''
Journal Officiel de la République Française
A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to:
*Bullet journal, a method of personal organization
*Diary, a record of what happened over the course of a day or other period
*Daybook, also known as a general journal, a ...
'' on 10 May 2018, although there are few changes in the tests.
Competition
There is an internal competition, an external competition, and a third competition.
Conditions for taking the competition
In order to take the external competition, it is necessary to justify, as a minimum, a registration in the first year of a master's degree or a recognised equivalence.
The internal competition is open to civil servants, non-tenured teachers or educational assistants with at least three years' seniority in the civil service.
Sections
The competitions are organized in several sections
Tests
The contest is divided into two parts:
*The written tests, firstly, to select the "eligible" candidates, i.e. those allowed to take the oral tests.
*The oral tests, secondly, select the only candidates who are definitively admitted.
Each year the Minister of National Education, after receiving the assent of the Minister of the Civil Service, sets the number of posts put up for competition for each discipline. These numbers vary greatly from one discipline to another and may fluctuate from one year to the next. The juries in each discipline are sovereign and decide on the eligibility and admission bars. The juries are composed of general inspectors of national education, regional education academy inspectors, members of higher education teaching bodies and certified associate professors.
Year of training and tenure
Successful candidates in the competition are appointed trainee civil servants and assigned for the duration of the traineeship in an
académie
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, f ...
by the Minister of Education. The traineeship lasts one year and alternates between work experience in an educational establishment and periods of training in a higher education establishment.
At the end of the traineeship, the rector of the academy in whose jurisdiction the traineeship is completed, on the proposal of the selection board, shall declare the traineeship tenable.
The certificate of aptitude for teaching in secondary education is awarded to candidates who have successfully passed the tests and completed the traineeship.
[Article 6 du décret du 4 juillet 1972]
Recruitment difficulties
1970-2000: growing needs and increasing number of posts
The number of posts offered in the competition increased eightfold between 1970 and 2006. Despite the growing needs, the attractiveness of the profession makes it possible, with a few transitional measures, to fill all the posts necessary for the operation of the institution.
References
{{reflist
Education in France
Teacher training programs