Faced with the waltz of Covid-19 protocols, the teachers’ strike promises to be very popular

Published on : 01/13/2022 – 07:16

This Thursday promises to be black in schools. Teachers should mobilize massively, Thursday, January 13, exasperated by the waltz of health protocols linked to the Covid-19 epidemic.

All the trade unions in the profession have called a strike in schools, colleges and high schools. They denounce “an indescribable mess” in schools due to the Covid-19 epidemic and health protocols.

“The government announces things, but we do not think about what this means for the personnel on the ground: it is hellish what we are asked and therefore it is going to ruin”, testified this week Olivier Flipo, director of a school in Val-d’Oise.

According to forecasts from Snuipp-FSU, the leading union in primary education, 75% of primary school teachers may not pass through the school gate on Thursday, half of which should therefore be closed. The union organization evokes “a historic mobilization by its magnitude over the last twenty years”. This “is not a strike against the virus but it illustrates the growing fed-up in schools”, said the union, referring to the words of the Minister of Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, who had spoken of ‘a “strike against the virus”.

“We do not demonstrate against a virus but against the conditions of reception of the pupils”, explains to AFP Anne, professor of mathematics in a college in Nice. “There are 14 absent in a class of 29 students, in 3^e. We can not ensure correct education to everyone at the same time, “laments this striking teacher who will go to demonstrate.

Since 2000, the strongest mobilization in education dates from May 13, 2003, when teachers went on strike to protest against François Fillon’s pension reform. The strike rate had then reached 74% in the first degree, 70.5% in college, 65% in general and technological high school and 62.2% in vocational high school.

“For many years, we have not seen such a compact and unitary set of unions, both primary and secondary, but also management,” explains education historian Claude Lelièvre in an interview with Liberation. “It is quite exceptional. From that point of view, this day and this call are clearly historic.”

Jean-Michel Blanquer, a minister in turmoil

And the tension is mounting, with an education minister once a good student in the government and now in turmoil. Faced with calls for resignation, government spokesman Gabriel Attal assured Wednesday that the executive was “very supportive” of his minister Jean-Michel Blanquer.

“Either we want to create controversy, which is quite easy given the difficulties posed by this virus, or we are looking for national unity around our school,” defended the Minister of Education Wednesday before the Senate.

In a statement, the joint mission of information to the Senate on the consequences of the epidemic said “to deplore the government’s bet facing the outbreak of the epidemic in schools”.

The call to strike was launched by almost all the teachers’ unions: Snuipp-FSU, SE-Unsa, Snes-FSU, Snalc, CGT Éduc’action, SUD Éducation, FO and Sgen-CFDT.

And for once, this movement has received support beyond the sphere of education professionals. The FCPE, the first organization of parents of pupils, signed the call to strike and invited parents to mobilize on Thursday to protest against the government’s management of the health crisis at school.

The Unaape (National Union of Autonomous Associations of Parents of Students) also calls “to support in solidarity the movement of all educational teams” and “not to send children to school Thursday”, according to its president, Patrick Salaün.

Even the main union of school leaders, SNPDEN-Unsa, “joins” the protest movement.

With AFP