“It is important to give vocational education its credentials,” said the president of the Ile-de-France region Valérie Pécresse on January 30, during the inauguration of the new building of the Pierre Mendes France high school in Villiers. -le-Bel.
However, less than ten days later, the mood has changed.
This Wednesday, a number of teachers at this establishment of 650 students are on strike.
A movement started the day before to denounce “malfunctions which seriously degrade working conditions” and “do not allow us to continue teaching in complete safety”.
The construction of this extension of 600 places at 27 million euros makes it possible to add general and technical courses to this historically professional establishment, and thus finally offers a comprehensive high school to this popular town of 27,000 inhabitants.
But for teachers, it does not reflect the reality of their daily lives.
The workshops where 500 students practice energy system or wood trades are particularly in poor condition.
A fact already denounced in the past.
A return to school without gas or heating
“We started the school year without gas, then there was a heating problem with 8 degrees in workshops, a big leak in another and now it is the air extractors which no longer work,” note the teachers.
Consequently, the use of the torch for welding courses in particular is prohibited until further notice.
“We wrote, reported, alerted but we still have no visibility on the restoration.
The exams are fast approaching, however,” warn the mobilized teachers.
Everyone hoped that the inauguration would have speeded things up.
“We played the game that day but it didn’t happen,” they lament.
The Ile-de-France region claims to be “fully mobilized” to resolve these dysfunctions.
“We provided hot air blowers to guarantee the set temperatures in the workshops and at the same time commissioned its energy operator to resolve the problem as quickly as possible,” she notes.
The Region ensures action to resolve the problems
As for the air extractors, “these are educational equipment that are the responsibility of the high school and not the region,” she replies.
However, as guarantor of the safety of people and places, we have mobilized a control office and a design office which will come to the high school at the beginning of next week so that the necessary interventions can be carried out as soon as possible. .
Concerning the teachers' request to increase human resources to cope with the announced increase in numbers at the start of the next school year, the academic management assures that it has already anticipated these needs.
Will this be enough to convince the strikers?
The latter will decide this Thursday whether or not to continue the movement.