several hundred demonstrators against “systematic inclusion”

A week before a call for a strike in the world of education, those supporting students with disabilities (AESH) demonstrated on Thursday to demand more resources to improve “the inclusion of students with disabilities “.

“Great job, very lousy salary”, “We want resources, we are not magicians”, “Macron sauce inclusion = exclusion”. Some 1,700 teachers and supporters of students with disabilities (AESH), according to the police headquarters, demonstrated on Thursday January 25 in Paris against “systematic and forced inclusion” children with disabilities in ordinary classes, before a call for a broader strike on Thursday February 1st. That day, six national education unions (FSU, CGT, FO, Sud, SE-Unsa and Sgen-CFDT) called for a strike and demonstrations throughout France on salaries and working conditions.

Teachers, AESH, territorial agents including Atsem, in kindergarten, and social services staff were called to strike and demonstrate in Paris on Thursday, at the call of the Fnec FP-FO union. The procession set off peacefully near the Luxembourg Gardens, heading towards rue de Grenelle. For Clément Poullet, general secretary of Fnec FP-FO, “people are here to denounce the systematic and forced inclusive school, without any care and no adapted schooling”. “It’s becoming untenable,” according to him. In Montpellier (Hérault), around thirty people gathered to express their anger, according to France 3 Occitanie.

“The government must provide the means”

“Let things be clear, we are not against the inclusion of children with disabilities in school. But we must be able to do it in good conditions, with support, the government must provide the means”testified to AFP Olivia Queysselier, nursery school teacher in Bayonne (Pyrénées-Atlantiques).

A teacher for 40 years, Isabelle Audic, in a nursery school in Val-d’Oise, says she sees “the deterioration of the inclusion of students with disabilities in ordinary classes”. “I am fortunate to have some training but the vast majority of teachers find themselves having to manage children who require special attention and training. Otherwise, this puts the disabled child, other students and teachers sometimes in danger”she assures.