“Commitments have been made and we will judge in the coming days”, declared Thursday, January 13 on franceinfo Sophie Vénétitay, general secretary of the SNES-FSU (National Union of Secondary School Teachers) union, after the day of strike at theEnational education and the meeting between Jean Castex and the unions. “Even if the meeting lasted a long time, it is not in three hours that we restore the confidence thus damaged. There are some signals but we will need more”, she added.
franceinfo: Are you satisfied with this meeting?
Sophie Venetitay: We felt the concern to explain a certain number of things to us. Olivier Véran took the time to justify from a health and medical point of view certain decisions that had been taken in recent weeks. , a desire to explain a certain number of things, to go into detail, to take the time to explain. Some commitments have been made on the method which has been decried since it consisted in communicating decisions at the last moment, not always consulting us. Commitments have been made and we will judge in the coming days.
The minister mentioned bi-monthly meetings with the unions, FFP2 masks, CO2 sensors and also the recruitment of 3,300 contract workers and supervisors. What do you think ?
The announcement of the recruitment of supervisors is a good thing since we know that school lives have been particularly stressed in the last few days. It was the supervisors in the colleges and high schools who were responsible for managing absent students and contact tracing. For the contractors, the question will be whether they will want to come. On fairly concrete elements such as masks it is true that there are openings but it is certainly to be credited to the strong mobilization of the day which forced the government to receive us this evening.
Relaxations of certain exams have been mentioned, as well as a possible postponement of certain baccalaureate exams. Is this a good thing?
It is a very strong request to postpone these baccalaureate tests from March to June. We can clearly see that our classes are emptying according to the results of positive tests and contact cases. At the moment we teach parts of the class and not whole classes. This does not allow for good progress in learning. So this is one of our very strong demands. The minister sketched an opening by saying that we were going to discuss to see if it was possible to postpone these tests. So there too it’s a commitment, a sign of openness, but it has to materialize and the decision has to be taken quickly.
Has a climate of trust been restored?
Restored is a big word because we are coming out of a 20-month period of health crisis where confidence was badly damaged by orders and counter-orders. Even if the meeting lasted a long time, it is not in three hours that one restores a confidence thus damaged. There are some signals but we need more. The commitments made this evening will have to be kept because we have been used to big discussions without a future. The discussions that have been announced will have to take place and above all there will have to be real changes in communication. In short, it will be necessary to show that the teachers are not despised by this ministry and on that everything remains to be done.