more than 50% of striking teachers announced in schools in many departments

Teachers are called to strike on Thursday by most union organizations. A protest movement that should be followed.

Teachers are called to mobilize on Thursday February 1st. Day of strike in National Education for better salaries and working conditions at the call of most teaching unions who want to launch “a warning to the government”.

In schools, the main teachers’ union, SNUipp, predicts a strike rate of 40% on average in France. But with places more mobilized than others: 65% in Paris, for example, and more than 50% in Val-de-Marne, Drôme, Ardèche or even in the Pyrénées-Atlantique. Here and there, entire schools will be closed.

In secondary education, middle and high schools, teachers do not have to register in advance. We will only have the figures once the day has started, but there will be many strikers. On the side of the Ministry of National Education, we already admit a movement “relatively followed”.

The unions note both quite strong discontent but also a sort of professional fatigue. Some teachers are jaded and no longer believe in the effectiveness of the strike, especially after the movement against pension reform last year. Some left many days of wages there, but ultimately to no avail.

The reasons for the mobilization

The main demands are wages and working conditions. For the unions, the remuneration project is not finished, after last year’s increases. They also oppose “clash of knowledge”this battery of measures, launched by Gabriel Attal when he was Minister of Education but which is inspired, according to them, “of a backward-looking and conservative school model”. One of the measures announced is the formation of level groups in middle school, in mathematics and French, which would only “contribute to assigning students to their social and academic positions”.

Union representatives also want fewer students per class and a recruitment plan, to compensate for the lack of staff, with the crucial question of replacements. This strike was launched last December, before the appointment of Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, but today’s context is of course particular: the new minister’s controversial outings on public schools have highlighted oil on the fire. The inter-union press release mentions a “disconnect with reality and the difficulties encountered on a daily basis“who nourish “great anger”.