why the level groups provided for in the “clash of knowledge” crystallize tensions with teachers

After a mobilization on February 1, teachers are back on the streets, notably for the improvement of their working conditions and their salaries but also against the level groups provided for in college.

New teachers’ strike movement Tuesday February 6. After an initial mobilization on Thursday, February 1, they returned to the streets, at the call of Snes-FSU, the majority union in the secondary sector, and the CGT, with the same demands: wage increases, better working conditions. work, fewer students per class, more recruitment. But what crystallizes the anger are the groups of levels, planned in the “clash of knowledge”, announced by Gabriel Attal when he was Minister of Education.

From September, in all middle schools, it will be necessary to form groups of three levels in 6th and 5th grade for French and mathematics. Gabrielle Bonicel is a literature professor in a college in Roubaix, in the North and a member of Snes-FSU. She is on strike Tuesday, because these level groups are “a real headache”.

“Great, I’m in the group of losers!”

In his college classified REP+, there will be seven groups in total. “Without additional resources, how can we do this?asks the professor. Obviously, if we have six classes and we have seven groups that must be created, that means additional classrooms even though we are very limited on the number of rooms available.”

“We will necessarily need additional teachers when we are already in short supply and there are establishments where there are staff who are not replaced.”

Gabrielle Bonicel, college professor and member of Snes-FSU

at franceinfo

Students will be sorted based on their CM2 assessment. For Gabrielle Bonicel, this labeling of students is counterproductive: “The learning conditions for them are better met when they are not stigmatized and they are not going to say to themselves: ‘Great, I’m in the group of losers!’ These courses will put them in a little more competition so it’s not a good spirit. It doesn’t work, it’s very stigmatizing.”

Instead of these level groups, the unions are asking for classes with reduced numbers to help students in difficulty, and more recruitment of better-paid teachers. Detailed measures of the “shock of knowledge” will be presented Thursday at the Higher Education Council.