Education

Many years of substitute teaching experience cannot be equated with habilitation

Khadijah Haqq

Council of State clarification on the value of service rendered and the need for the title to qualify for permanent tenure

The so-called “field experience” acquired through short substitutions cannot replace the possession of the qualification for the purpose of access to tenure: the temporal scope of duration excludes that continuity in the relationship with pupils necessary to be able to qualify its performance as an expression of the full qualification achieved by the teacher.
In its recent ruling 1641 of February 16, the Council of State clarified that service as a substitute teacher does not allow for the integration of the possession of the qualification, the latter being an additional qualification that is obtained at the end of peculiar training courses, defined as qualifying and in addition to the mere qualification.

The qualification
Where, therefore, the legislation provides for the possession of the teaching qualification, this title is different and additional to the mere educational qualification and the service provided, with the result that the latter, cannot be recognized as qualifying. In fact, the teaching qualification is obtained at the end of a specific course of study, aimed at enabling the person who intends to exercise the teaching function, to acquire special psycho-pedagogical skills, necessary for the exercise of the educational function of the students and the transmission to them of the knowledge proper to the school course undertaken. The acquisition of the aforementioned psycho-pedagogical skills, in one with those necessary to be able to exercise the duties of a teacher within the complex school reality, requires the subjecting of the teacher to a necessary training course that cannot be substituted by the mere exercise of the teaching activity.

“Short” substitutions
On the other hand, it must be considered that the substitutions allowed in the absence of a qualification are precisely those that are “short,” thus of limited time scope. These are teaching activities that are neither assimilated nor equivalent to the possession of the teaching qualification.