an “extremely tense” meeting, confides the FSU

The secretary general of the FSU assures, on franceinfo Monday, that the meeting with Amélie Oudéa-Castéra came to an end.

The meeting with Amélie Oudéa-Castéra was “extremely tense”, confides, Monday January 15 on franceinfo, Benoît Teste, general secretary of the FSU (United Union Federation). The new Minister of National Education receives the unions throughout the day and the coming days.

Benoît Teste returns to the controversial remarks of the minister who tried to justify the education of her children in a private school because of the lack of replacement of absent teachers in the public sector. The trade unionist judges them “denigrating.” The minister “regrets what happened but makes no commitment”deplores Benoît Teste who adds that it does not give “pledges of its desire to strengthen the public education service.” He assures him, the problem is not “his personal life” but “the political statements about what she seemed to question. That’s what was tense.”

“A deep crisis in education”

Tense to the point that the union “cut the discussion short” : “We left the session at one point because we thought we could no longer discuss calmly with this minister. We said that the urgency was really to attract people into the education professions. “ He explains that the minister has “unrolled all the same elements of language which say nothing about what we are doing on working conditions, on salaries, etc.”

During this meeting, Benoît Teste ensures that he has “exposes what is considered to be a profound crisis in education, which she did not create but which her words revealed.”

The FSU’s fear is also linked to the fact that the new minister is at the head of the Ministry of National Education, Sports and the Olympic and Paralympic Games: “The scope of his ministry integrating the Olympics […] This makes us fear that politically education issues will not be supported or will be used by the Prime Minister or the Elysée for communication purposes.”

In short, concludes Benoît Teste, “It’s a very bad start.” He hopes that the February 1 strike will be “a step, a real uprising of the profession.”