Mediapart revealed [article payant] Monday that the Minister of National Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, was in Ibiza when he gave an interview to the newspaper The Parisian to announce the new health protocol in schools that teachers learned the evening before the start of the school year in January. “There is really a gap here between what Ibiza represents and what colleagues were experiencing on a daily basis on the eve of the start of the new school year”, regrets the co-secretary general and spokesperson for the SNUipp-FSU, Guislaine David on Tuesday January 18 on franceinfo. She thinks it gives “the impression that this crisis has always been managed with great lightness and casualness. It will inevitably widen even more the gap that already existed between the minister and his staff”.
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franceinfo: Does the presence of Jean-Michel Blanquer in Ibiza while he made the announcements for the start of the school year after the holidays fuel the anger of teachers?
Guislaine David: It is really the symbol that is terrible. Imagine that principals and teachers were in anguish and difficulty on Sunday to apply a protocol the next day, which they learned from the press. There is really a gap here between what Ibiza represents and what colleagues were experiencing on a daily basis on the eve of the start of the new school year. Knowing it like that will inevitably widen even more the gap that already existed between the minister and his staff. Inevitably, people always need to go on vacation, it is not on this phenomenon that it can be blamed, but it is really the symbol that it represents.
“He had justified the late announcement of the protocol to stick as closely as possible to the reality on the ground. We now know what his reality was. Obviously, we can only be angry.”
Guislaine David, from SNUipp-FSUat franceinfo
Colleagues can’t understand that. We need to have a minister who sets an example, especially in the period, and who is not in this kind of situation vis-à-vis the staff who are in difficulty on a daily basis. Every day, we manage positive cases of students, teachers who are absent, who are not replaced. When you see the numbers last week, it’s terrible. There really is a discrepancy, with the impression that this crisis has always been handled very lightly and casually. That’s also what Ibiza represents. There really is a symbol that is difficult to understand and difficult for colleagues to swallow.
Do you call Jean-Michel Blanquer to resign?
Since the beginning of this crisis, we have always mentioned these problems of credibility vis-à-vis teachers and the management of the crisis. Is Jean-Michel Blanquer still worthy of being Minister of National Education? Obviously, we no longer have to deal with Jean-Michel Blanquer since last Thursday and it is also the strong mobilization of teachers that made this possible. It is really the Prime Minister who has taken over this management of the crisis and since last Thursday, this minister has been under the supervision of the Prime Minister. We really have a problem with the minister’s credibility.
Last week, the minister promised reinforcements and finally surgical masks for teachers. Have they arrived?
The masks, we were told that it would happen this week, so we are waiting to judge on the actions. We will know if it does not happen. On the question of replacements, there is an unblocking of the additional list – those teachers who do not arrive on the main list for the school teacher competitions but on another list – who will be recruited, who will have permanent contracts. There, we are working with the ministry and the cabinet to see precisely how these people are going to be recruited. There is a strong expectation on the ground. We need strong actions. You have to go very fast for it to be felt on the pitch. We will be very attentive to what the ministry will implement.
You call for a new day of action Thursday January 20, a week after a day of strike. What are you asking for this time?
Thursday is a mobilization which, sometimes, in places, will take the form of a strike in certain departments, in others it will take the form of a mobilization, of actions, of rallies, of placing banners on schools, different forms of action. It is to continue to put the pressure because if answers were given by the Prime Minister during the meeting last Thursday, if we had an entry into discussion, now, we must concretize all that. It has to go fast.
“This pressure, we will keep it, including by the strike on January 27 on wages.”
Guislaine Davidat franceinfo