The mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo. Le Figaro
After a first letter in February to the rue de Grenelle, the mayor of Paris again exposes her reluctance to the massive abolition of teaching posts, justified by the demographic decline.
The letter comes in response to the government’s plan to massively reduce the number of classes and teachers in Paris from September 2023. In a letter sent to parents of students on the occasion of the start of the school year on Monday, the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo denounces the reduction of posts in the capital, a “major attack on the public service of education“, indicates BFMTV this Monday. “It’s time to get out of the purely statistical logic of the government“said the mayor PS.
The new distribution by academy of positions in public education, announced in December by the Ministry of National Education for the next school year, raised a wave of indignation within the teaching class. Announced in December, it provides for more than 1,000 job cuts, particularly in the Lille and Paris academies. In the capital, one hundred and fifty-five positions are concerned, and 178 classes in primary, 182 full-time equivalents (FTE) in college-high school.
Many parents, teachers and Parisian elected officials have since denounced a “bleeding”. Several protest movements have already taken place, in particular in front of schools in the particularly affected north-east of Paris. While the services of the rectorate meet this Monday, the socialist mayor claims to bring her “support for the mobilizations of the educational community to obtain the cancellation of these decisions“. “This is unacceptable!“, she says in the letter, reiterating her “resolute oppositionto the project.
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A first letter rue de Grenelle
In February, the mayor had sent a first missive to the Minister of National Education, Pap Ndiaye. She asked for a “encounter” with the tenant on rue de Grenelle, noting in particular that establishments classified as priority education “would be particularly affected”which would risk “degrade the number of students per class in establishments where the public is the most socially and academically fragile”. According to Le Parisien, a meeting between the mayor and Pap Ndiaye is scheduled for Monday.
The argument of the rectorate to justify the 178 class cuts – against fifty in 2022 – is the drastic reduction in students in Paris for several years. At the end of September 2022, 108,538 children were enrolled in public primary school. This is 4093 less than in 2021 (- 3.6%). In ten years, in total, the capital has lost 27,500 primary school students, or 20% of its workforce. The second degree is also concerned. Between 2021 and 2022, 1,250 young people left secondary schools and 448 left public high schools in Paris. This phenomenon is set to continue in the coming years.
For Anne Hidalgo, this decrease is on the contrary a “chance to seize” since “reduced numbers are the guarantee of better conditions for learning, in particular in schools in the priority education network and in working-class neighborhoods“. “Another way is possible», assures the mayor of Paris, wishing «rethink the school as a whole to leave more room for open, collective, innovative pedagogies, and promote the development of our children“.
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