A “bust”. This Thursday, teachers and other National Education staff took part in a large strike and demonstrated to demand answers from the government after the waltz of health protocols linked to Covid-19.
Nearly 38.5% of teachers were on strike in nursery and elementary schools, according to the Ministry of Education, and 75% according to the SNUipp-FSU, the first primary union, which announces one in two schools closed and mentions ” a historic mobilization”. In colleges and high schools, 23.7% of teachers were mobilized, according to the ministry, while the Snes-FSU, the leading secondary school union, puts forward the figure of 62% of strikers. All the National Education unions, bringing together teachers but also nurses or school life staff and, more rarely, inspectors or heads of establishments, had called for this day of mobilization, denouncing “an indescribable mess” due to health protocols.
According to figures from the Ministry of the Interior, 77,500 people demonstrated throughout France, including 8,200 in Paris. The ministry has identified 136 actions across the country.
Unions received at the Ministry of Education
The unions were received, at their request, by Prime Minister Jean Castex at the Ministry of Education, in the presence of Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer. His colleague from Health Olivier Véran, who had just tested positive for Covid, was connected by videoconference.
At the end of this meeting, Jean-Michel Blanquer notably announced the provision of “5 million FFP2 masks” for kindergarten teachers on request and “several thousand” replacements “to deal with the crisis”. The evaluations for the CP classes scheduled for January will be “postponed to a deadline which remains to be defined”, he indicated.
The tension is rising, with a Minister of Education, once a good student of the government and today in turmoil. “It is exhaustion, exasperation after 22 months of health crisis, incessant modifications that we can sometimes understand, but you need better communication, ”explains Bruno Bobkiewicz, general secretary of the main union of school heads (SNPDEN). He was present this Thursday afternoon in the Parisian demonstration which brought together several thousand people, including left-wing presidential candidates.
“Blanque resignation”
In Bordeaux, where some 3,000 people demonstrated according to the organizers, 1,900 according to the prefecture, the procession stopped in front of the rectorate. Teachers hung there on the grids the fabric masks provided by the National Education on which they wrote messages like “Blanquer resignation”. “This umpteenth protocol was the last straw”, protests Laetitia, kindergarten teacher in Landiras (Gironde). In Limoges, where 850 demonstrators were present, the words “Blanquer le virus qui tu l’éducation” were on the ground in red letters, while in Lille, 1,500 people marched according to the prefecture behind a banner “If the school cough, the republic is choking”.
In Clermont-Ferrand, a procession of 1,200 people according to the prefecture marched in the morning with placards calling for the resignation of the Minister of Education. In Rennes, 4,500 demonstrators according to the organizers, 2,200 according to the police, left the city center to go in front of the rectorate, with slogans such as “My sign is rotten, your protocol too” or “Renew the air, fire Blanquer”. In Marseille, where there were many “closed school” posters on the doors of establishments, the morning procession counted 2,200 demonstrators according to the police. “Less contempt, more means” or “Blanquer we want a nurse”, could we read on the signs.