Luxembourg's Minister for National Education, Childhood and Youth, Claude Meisch;

Luxembourg's Ministry of National Education, Children and Youth has announced that registration for the 2018 edition of the competition for the recruitment of primary school teachers was closed on 11 May 2018, with a total of 239 candidates in total.

All candidates with a Bachelor of Science in Education entered the competition, including 16 candidates for cycle 1, 121 candidates for cycles 2 to 4 and 102 candidates for the four cycles (1 to 4). Of these 239 candidates, 201 are recent graduates and 38 are currently already members of the reserve of alternates, i.e. they have already gained experience in primary education as teachers.

Twice as many new graduates registered in the 2018 competition

With 239 candidates, the number of entries in the 2018 competition is much higher than last year when only 168 candidates registered for the 2017 edition. The number of new graduates registered has more than doubled: 201 in 2018 against 91 in 2017.

This increase is the result of the efforts the Ministry has invested in recent months to meet the recruitment challenges in basic education, including the following adaptations:

• Access to the contest was expanded. Previously reserved for qualified graduates to teach in all four cycles of primary education, the competition is also open to qualified candidates to teach either Cycle 1 or Cycles 2 to 4.

• The internship period for teachers is changed from 3 to 2 years for trainee teachers who have completed four years of study and who can claim a cumulative duration of at least 20 weeks of practical training in the field. This reduced internship helps to make the teaching profession more attractive.

At a total of eight meetings in March and April 2018, Minister Claude Meisch met with students in education sciences of the various universities in Luxembourg, Brussels (B), Bastogne (B), Virton (B) and Friborg (CH) to inform them of changes to the competition and the internship, and to answer their questions.

Call for applications: recruitment of bachelor's degree holders in relation to the objectives of primary education

To sustainably improve the quality of education, the Ministry intends to focus on the recruitment of bachelor graduates in relation to the current practice of recruiting replacement teachers (the latter must have a secondary school diploma and follow a practical internship of 4 weeks).

Thus, access to the recruitment competition, which is currently reserved only for holders of a Bachelor of Science in Education, will be open to holders of a Bachelor's degree in relation to primary education.

On the basis of their application, the candidates in question are engaged as Teachers (indefinite contracts) and will participate, during their first year of service, in a 240-hour theoretical and practical on-the-job training course offered by the National Institute of Education Training (IFEN). The success of this will allow them to take part in the recruitment contest and to accede to the function of teacher under the same conditions as the candidate holding a bachelor degree in sciences of the education (preliminary tests, classification in rank…).

This mechanism will only apply if the number of candidates holding a Bachelor's degree in Education is less than the number of positions available.

Given the current recruitment needs, it will apply in 2018. Calls for applications will be published at the end of May.

An information session for all interested candidates will be held on Tuesday 29 May 2018 at 19:00 on the Edupôle site in Walferdange (Auditorium). For further information, contact the Department of Primary Education, tel: 247-85931.