Part of the staff of the Paul-Eluard high school in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis) has been exercising their right of withdrawal since Monday. Flooded corridors, waterlogged walls… These professionals denounce the state of disrepair of their establishment.
Upon returning from spring vacation, the staff of the Paul-Eluard high school in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis) discovered the damage. There is water everywhere, on the floor, along the walls and in the ceiling that has collapsed on the desk of the principal education adviser. “This false ceiling collapse is symbolic. Eight months of work have been lost. I no longer have a computer, no phone, no documents. It was the moment that had to be seized”she explains.
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The staff of this establishment took it to alert on the state of their buildings, in particular by photos and videos posted on social networks. A quarter of them have also been exercising their right of withdrawal since Monday May 22. Thursday, May 25, at 12:30 p.m., a rally takes place in front of the headquarters of the Ile-de-France region, in Saint-Ouen, to denounce the state of disrepair of this school.
A collapsing ceiling, waterlogged walls, flooded corridors, this is the mind-blowing state of this high school in Saint-Denis, just a few kilometers from the construction sites of ultra-modern Olympic Games sites. The situation has been deteriorating for months in this very large popular high school in Seine-Saint-Denis, 2,000 students, 60% of whom are scholarship holders.
These students are not reassured to work in these conditions. “Water comes out of the walls, it’s impossibledescribes one of them. When we hear the water flowing, we are very afraid, we can be in danger. “It is because we are in Saint-Denis that we are neglected a little”says another student.
This feeling of abandonment is clearly shared by one of the history and geography teachers. “We are treated with contempt“, she says. In addition to these problems of infiltration, the teacher denounces computer equipment in poor condition and broken radiators which oblige everyone to work with coat and blanket in winter. “The conditions in which we work remind us every day how much our students and ourselves are despised. We press switches, we get a ‘chestnut’. That’s the reality of this school: we arrives in classrooms, we do not know if we are safe.”
190 schools dressed in Ile-de-France in 2021
Emergency repairs have been promised by the Ile-de-France Regional Council, as well as an investment of 40 million euros in energy renovation, but which will be voted on in July. Work cannot begin for at least a year.
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The state of disrepair of this school is not an isolated case, especially in Ile-de-France. Recurring problems are reported elsewhere in Seine-Saint-Denis, but also in Val-de-Marne or Seine-et-Marne. The Regional Court of Auditors pointed in 2021 to 190 dilapidated establishments and the renovation was scheduled for only a quarter of them.
“In terms of investment, emphasizes Cyril Verlingue who represents the Snes-FSU union, the Region announces five billion euros. The problem is that between announcements and achievements, the account is not there. For the moment, we are around only one billion in expenses actually incurred while we are halfway through the 2017-2027 Provisional Investment Plan. The majority of Valérie Pécresse, president of the Ile-de-France Region, defends her action and denounces the delay taken by her socialist predecessors.