Gold medal, yes, but “departments where unreplaced absences explode,” insist the parents of students in Val-de-Marne.
So it was carrying “the flame of public education” that they marched alongside teachers this Saturday afternoon, to continue the metaphor of the Olympic Games.
Objective: to demand “means for public schools”, which they believe are suffering too much.
There were around a hundred of them taking the start this Saturday from the Pont du Port à l'Anglais, in Vitry-sur-Seine.
The procession took the road to Mac Val, the department's contemporary art museum.
“The level of children is falling”
At the call of FCPE 94, parents and teachers chanted slogans like “means for our toddlers” or “money for public schools, wheat for AEDs (Editor's note
,
educational assistants), cash for AESH (
Editor’s note
, accompanying students with disabilities)”.
A way of sounding the alarm for staff dedicated to children in difficulty, who are not numerous enough to meet the needs of families.
Many children participated in the parade of this flame of education.
LP/Laure Parny
“We are helplessly witnessing an impoverishment of all schools,” laments Mouna, a mother from Ivry-sur-Seine who came to march with her three boys in nursery school, elementary school and middle school.
There is a lack of resources everywhere!
School trips disappear or must be cheap, teachers and teachers are not replaced.
The level of children in classes has dropped completely since Covid.
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The teachers present are worried that this level will continue to fall with the measures announced by the new government and the increase in courses with students separated by level.
“It’s an aberration what’s happening to your children, the measures are regressive and not educational, it’s a real step backwards,” insisted Cécile Quinson, departmental secretary of the FSU 94 teaching union. Children in difficulty will be even more so after having been deprived of what mixed classes bring them.
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This mobilization was “a first step, but in the coming days, let’s fight for public schools”, also launched Lionel Barre, co-president of FCPE 94, who had already organized the Education Candlemas at the beginning of February 2022.
Parents and teachers will be mobilized again this Tuesday for the holding of the departmental council of national education.