Pro high schools: in Toulouse the reform does not pass either
They denounce a reform which plans to increase by half in three years the duration of internships for vocational high school students. The National Movement of High School Students (MLN) called for a strike and a blockade in establishments in Haute-Garonne on Tuesday 18 October. Teachers, students and union representatives gathered in front of the Bellevue high school in Toulouse in the middle of the morning to decree a “dead high school”. They then gathered in front of the Rectorate of the Toulouse Academy before joining the interprofessional event at the start of the afternoon. 3500 people marched according to the prefecture.
Myriam Martin, teacher at the professional high school of Bellevue and representative of the CGT Educ’Action does not take off: “They want to put more of our students on internships, as if the company could replace the school when our students need knowledge and knowledge like all students”. Less than 7% of children of executives are enrolled in vocational high schools, the rest come from working-class backgrounds “Once again those who are sacrificed, no one protests, no one says anything, these students are denied the right to study like the others, it’s simply unbearable”.
“We don’t make chairs for bosses”the strong words of Myriam Martin who is worried about the future of her students in the face of a Ministry of Education which does not take enough account of the professional sectors; “our interlocutor today must be both the Minister of Education and the President of the Republic since it is he who wants this reform”; “we want to withdraw this project which is a catastrophic project” claims the representative of the CGT Educ’Action. Same tone with Lisa, 17 years old and student in Accompaniment, Care and Service to the Person (ASSP) at Emilie de Rodat in Toulouse who has the impression “to be taken for a freak”; “ we will have less knowledge so we will be even less valued at the level of Parcoursup. Already for the pro sectors it is complicated, with this reform it will be even worse”.
According to the Rectorate, 32.3% of pro high school teachers were on strike at the Toulouse academy on Tuesday.
Theo Rodriguez