In the lycées (secondary schools) created in 1802, the supervision and management of pupils outside the classroom is totally independent from teaching, and put in the charge of a subaltern professional body, that of “maître d’études” or study masters. Brutally exploited, indispensable for the smooth running of the pedagogical institutions but severely criticised, study masters are the weak link in the state school system. This paper studies the intentions behind the policy of promotion and training put in place starting in 1829 to improve study master – they were renamed “répétiteurs” or tutors in 1853 – recruitment and reputation, as well as that of state secondary education ; its modalities ; and its results. This policy hesitated between various perceptions of tutoring : as a teaching noviciate, as a selfsufficient profession, as a career start leading to many different possible functions. Despite its results – an improvement in tutor training, and in that of the whole of the teaching personnel in secondary level state schools, progress in status and in work and living conditions – it was not sufficient to bring satisfaction to the tutors themselves, and ended up contributing to the final crisis of the secondary school state system.