Launched on February 26, the protest movement of teachers in Seine-Saint-Denis continued on Thursday, March 7, with a rally which took place at midday in front of the Ministry of National Education.
The departmental inter-union FSU, CGT, SUD, CNT and FO are calling in particular for an emergency plan with the creation of 5,000 teaching positions and more than 3,000 school life jobs. Among the demands are also thresholds of 20 students per class and the renovation of aging establishments. They are also opposed to the reform of the “clash of knowledge” which would amount to “sorting of students”, according to them.
Announced by Gabriel Attal – then Minister of National Education – in December, the reform provides for the creation of level groups from the start of the 2024 school year in 6th and 5th grade for French and mathematics, and from September 2025 in 4th and 3rd.
For around ten days, teachers, students and parents have been carrying out “deserted school” operations to make their demands heard. They also organized on Wednesday a photo exhibition of the most dilapidated establishments in the department in front of the headquarters of the Ile-de-France region, in Saint-Ouen (Seine-Saint-Denis).
“Continuous deterioration of teaching conditions”
In a letter sent Thursday to the Minister of National Education, Nicole Belloubet, the “rebellious”, socialist and communist deputies of Seine-Saint-Denis deplore “the continued deterioration of teaching conditions in the department and its under -chronic endowment in relation to its neighbors”. In Seine-Saint-Denis, a child loses on average one year of lessons over their entire schooling due to teacher absences not being replaced, according to the Federation of Parents’ Councils (FCPE).
“In this department, the youngest and poorest in mainland France, the school does not just reproduce birth inequalities: it widens them, this observation is revolting,” warned the communist elected official from Seine- Saint-Denis Stéphane Peu during questions to the government in the National Assembly on Wednesday.
In response, the Minister of National Education, Nicole Belloubet, affirmed that “it is because this department concentrates both numerous assets and real difficulties that we are paying particular attention to it and that specific measures deployed there.” The minister also announced that the staff had “been received by Dasen [the academic management] and the rector of the academy also declared herself available to receive them”.
In an interview with Libération, Thursday, the president of the department, Stéphane Troussel (Socialist Party), campaigns to integrate Seine-Saint-Denis into the Paris academy, and no longer into that of Créteil (Val-de-Marne) , as is currently the case. This change of assignment would allow “pooling of resources”, “greater attractiveness for teachers and better attractiveness of the school in general through the strong symbolic charge” of the operation. In his department, “more than 60% of establishments are in REP [priority education network] and yet, the resources allocated by national education are sometimes lower than those of establishments in advantaged neighborhoods of Paris”, regrets the elected official in this interview.
