The Seces union is sounding the alarm over the lack of teaching researchers in Madagascar's public universities. It is demanding three hundred budgetary positions to ensure continuity.

The Union of Teaching Researchers and Research Teachers in Higher Education (Seces) is raising concerns about the shortage of teaching researchers in public universities. "A large number of departments are already facing a shortage of teaching researchers," said Prof. Sammy Grégoire Ravelonirina, president of the Antananarivo section of Seces, in a joint statement from the union's offices last week.

Temporary staff make up 70% of teachers in Madagascar's public universities, according to Seces. Within the English Studies department, for example, they represent half of the teaching staff. "Half of the permanent teachers in our department will soon retire," warns a Seces member. The union is concerned about succession planning: "We train the best to teach in our field. They start as temporary staff, but due to poor pay, they end up leaving after one or two years."

Other departments at the École supérieure polytechnique and the École normale supérieure are also facing this teacher shortage.

Seces is demanding three hundred budgetary positions out of the thousand available this year, "if we want to avoid the closure of public universities in Madagascar."

Digital Replacement

The union believes that the rate of opening new university establishments far exceeds the rate of recruiting teaching researchers.

The union proposes implementing digital replacement as a solution to the teacher shortage in public universities. It also calls on authorities to reform the teaching researcher workforce to improve university operations and standards.