“Stop contempt”
After two more than complicated weeks at school, the staff of the National Education – teachers, but also management staff, educational assistants, accompanying persons with disabilities, inspectors, nurses and doctors of Education national … – were many on strike this Thursday, January 13.
Between 2,200 demonstrators, according to the prefecture and 2,500, according to teachers, denounced the management of the health crisis by the government and the Minister of Education Jean-Michel Blanquer. They particularly regret the many changes in health protocol. They also point the finger at the lack of replacement. The movement is supported by high school organizations and parents of students.
“The high schools are more mobilized than usual”
According to the Snes-FSU, the majority union in colleges and high schools, the movement is very followed in the Academy of Lyon (Rhône-Ain-Loire). “The first report this Thursday morning shows 45% of strikers, but most of the school life staff (supervisors, AED) are totally on strike. The high schools are more mobilized than usual, in particular with the demand for the report of the specialty baccalaureate exams from March to June ”indicates the Snes-FSU.
According to the union, the mobilization is very strong in certain establishments, such as the college Molière (Lyon 3rd), the college Jean-Jaurès (Villeurbanne), the college Leprince-Ringuet (Genas), the high school Albert-Camus (Rillieux), the Saint-Just high school (Lyon 5th) or the Lumière high school (Lyon 8th).
More than 36% of strikers in the first degree according to the rectorate
According to figures communicated by the rectorate this Thursday at noon, 36.10% of teachers of the first degree, of the Academy of Lyon (Rhône-Ain-Loire), are on strike.
In the second degree, still according to the rectorate, 21.60% of teachers participate in the movement in the Academy.
Figures below the average in mainland France. The Ministry of National Education indicated that 38.48% of teachers in the first degree were on strike this Thursday, 23.73% in the second degree.
Seen from the procession
“We are not so well recognized by the National Education, the nurses. I work in a school community where there are 1,800 students and 200 staff. We are there, without a school doctor, on the front line, with students, teachers and school staff who are not doing well. The students are in pain. They don’t know what to expect, there has been a lot of contamination since the start of the vacation and suddenly it affects them enormously, with the pressure of exams and all, ”emphasizes Chantal, school nurse in Tarare. She, like several of her colleagues, is part of the procession demonstrating in Lyon.
“Protocols are constantly changing. We work with a school doctor who has 44 schools, three colleges and a professional high school. It’s complicated, ”says her colleague Céline, who works in a college and schools in the Haute Azergues area.
Joël is a psychologist in the Bourgoin-Jallieu sector. He also encountered the children’s concerns beforehand: “They went through the crisis with extremely difficult protocols for them and there, this new protocol added to their anxieties”.
“We learn about the changes in the press”
“Stop contempt”, poster Caroline, a teacher in a college in Lyon 3rd. “Like caregivers, teachers are looked down upon by the government in the way it communicates with us. We learn about the changes in the press, in paid articles instead of having them live. Protocols change all the time and are inapplicable, ”she insists.
“The new protocol was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Families are as much as we are. We can no longer teach properly. The children are worried. We try to respond to the children as well as possible, ”met Nadia, a kindergarten teacher in the north of Isère.
Some parents also came to support the education staff. “It’s been very hard since the start of the school year. It’s hell for teachers who do everything but their job. They have to check the tests every day. It’s also complicated for the children, ”explains this mother of two children aged 10 and 6, from Lyon 7th.
Festival of slogans
“Masks, resources, consideration”, “Chaos in schools is enough”, “Revalorization of our professions”, … can we read in particular on the signs. Just like another “50 shades of protocols” or even “The teachers are not lazy, we what we want, they are replacements”
In the songs and slogans, there is a lot of talk about substitutes.
Disturbances on the TCL: traffic is difficult on line T1 and C21 in particular.
Before the presidential election, the debate is very political
A few months of the presidential election, many politicians support the movement of this Thursday.
“The vague and unilateral management of the crisis by the Minister of National Education is creating an untenable situation in Lyon as elsewhere. There is an urgent need to stabilize the protocols, and to recognize the expertise of teachers, users and local communities … and to allocate coherent resources and means ”, in particular reacted on Twitter the EELV mayor of Lyon Grégory Doucet on Thursday morning.
The elected officials of Lyon en Commun, the City and the Metropolis, also learned of their support for the movement. “The study conditions of the pupils and the working conditions of the staff are catastrophic (…). The government must stop its chaotic management of the pandemic and take all its responsibilities to put an end to this indescribable mess, ”they say in a press release.