The Ministry of Education recorded 20.26% of strikers among teachers on Thursday, February 1 – in detail, the ministry lists 20% of teachers on strike in primary schools, and 29% in middle schools, 8% in general high schools and technological and 12% in vocational high school. The unions announce 40% of strikers among primary school teachers and 47% in middle and high schools.
Teachers and all education staff are called to strike and demonstrate throughout France, at the call of the main unions (FSU, CGT, FO, SUD-Education, UNSA-Education, SGEN-CFDT) . There are many watchwords: remuneration, working conditions, defense of public schools…
In a joint press release released on January 30, the FSU, the CGT, SUD, the UNSA and the SGEN-CFDT highlighted their “attachment to the educational project of public, secular, free and compulsory school”. “We denounce policies that organize a form of social separatism and contribute to undermining social cohesion and our democracy,” they say.
A call for a strike launched in December
This call for a strike was launched in December, before the arrival of Amélie Oudéa-Castéra at the Ministry of Education to succeed Gabriel Attal, appointed to Matignon. Promoted to head of a “super-ministry” – education, youth, sports and the Olympic Games – Ms. Oudéa-Castéra crystallized the discontent of the teaching world.
The controversial declarations of the minister upon taking office, who justified the registration of her children at the private Stanislas establishment by “lots of hours not seriously replaced” in the public – assertions later denied by the former -her son’s kindergarten teacher – have still not been forgotten, despite her apologies.
In Paris, a demonstration is due to leave at 2 p.m. from Luxembourg towards the Ministry of National Education. Others are announced in many cities throughout France. In Marseille, at least 1,600 teachers and high school students, according to the police, have been demonstrating, since this morning, “very angry” in particular against the statements of their minister.
This mobilization will be “a warning to the government”, which “remains deaf” to alerts “on daily life, suffering at work as well as the lack of recognition, particularly salary”, underlined the FSU-SNUipp, the main union of the first degree, for whom “the situation worsened with the appointment of a part-time minister who discredited herself.”
