Teachers’ strike: “Readability work has not been done” on the health protocol, admits François Bayrou

A new day of strike is looming this Thursday, January 20 within the National Education. The opportunity for the president of the Modem and High Commission for the Plan to express his understanding of the exasperation of teachers and parents. “There is a lack of simplicity in the decisions that have been made”, recognized François Bayrou, himself a former Minister of National Education from 1993 to 1997.

“The fact that the decisions, the rules, the standards are made late and are so complex that many people cannot find their way around, that is the real question”, underlined the mayor of Pau, criticizing the current health protocol applied to the school.

According to him, this complexity has consequences on public life, in addition to causing the weariness of the people concerned. “All those responsible must understand that this is one of the reasons why people turn away from public action, from the major orientations, from the decisions that are taken. It is so complicated, so bureaucratic”, explained the president of the Modem. He also assured that legibility work had not been done, “as the French expected”.

However, this criticism of the health protocol did not prevent François Bayrou from trying to defend the Minister of National Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, whose trip to Ibiza the day before the start of the school holidays reignited the anger of the teachers and those affected by the rules at school. “That we can take four days between Christmas and New Year’s Day when we have to celebrate an important family event, it does not seem absurd”, he underlined, before recalling: “We always refer that to the ministers, while there are many other administrative and normative organizations that the ministers do not always control directly”.

For the first day of mobilization, last Thursday, nearly 78,000 people marched in France, including 8,200 in Paris, according to the Ministry of the Interior. 38.5% of teachers had gone on strike in nursery and elementary schools and 23.7% in middle and high schools, according to the Ministry of Education, the FSU, the main union, announcing much higher figures ( respectively 75% and 62%).

This time, the unions expect less mobilization, both in number of strikers and demonstrators. The mobilization day, however, comes after the “terrible symbol”, of the Minister of Education, weakened by the revelation of his trip, by Mediapart.