They want better monitoring and more resources.
Several hundred teachers and supporters of students with disabilities (AESH) demonstrated Thursday in Paris against the “systematic and forced inclusion” of children with disabilities in ordinary classes, before a call for a strike wider in the world of education next Thursday.
Teachers, AESH, territorial agents including Atsem (in kindergarten) and social services staff were called to strike and demonstrate in Paris at the call of the Fnec FP-FO union.
The procession set off peacefully near the Luxembourg Gardens (6th arrondissement) around 1:30 p.m., heading towards rue de Grenelle.
On signs, we could read: “great job, very lousy salary”, “we want resources, we are not magicians”, “inclusion with Macron sauce = exclusion”.
“Let me 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 Olivia Queysselier, nursery school teacher in Bayonne (Pyrénées-Atlantiques).
An “untenable” situation
For Clément Poullet, general secretary of Fnec FP-FO, “people are here to denounce systematic and forced inclusive schooling, without any care and no adapted schooling”.
“It’s becoming untenable,” according to him.
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 lucky to have some training but the vast majority of teachers find themselves having to manage children who require special attention and training.
Otherwise, it puts the disabled child, other students and teachers sometimes in danger,” she assures.
Myriam, a 53-year-old AESH who has held this position in a school in Tarn for 7 years and did not wish to give her last name, agrees.
“We are asked to support several students at the same time, for very little time per child, to, we are told, make them more independent, but we sometimes border on mistreatment.”
Next Thursday, she will “certainly be back on the street to defend public schools in the broad sense”.
Six national education unions (FSU, CGT, FO, Sud, SE-Unsa and Sgen-CFDT) are calling for a strike and demonstrations across France on February 1 on wages and working conditions.