The teaching unions of Seine-Saint-Denis are calling for a rally on Thursday noon in front of the Ministry of Education in Paris to demand an emergency plan for schools in the poorest and youngest department in France and to protest against the reform level groups.
The departmental inter-union FSU, CGT, SUD, CNT and FO met at 12:00 at Place de la Sorbonne to then join the Ministry of National Education to question its tenant Nicole Belloubet.
“I am very attentive to the social movement (...) in Seine-Saint-Denis. The staff were received by DASEN (academic director) and the rector of the academy also declared herself available to receive them
,” Nicole Belloubet told the National Assembly during current affairs questions to the government on Wednesday.
“It is because I know that this department concentrates both numerous assets and real difficulties that we pay particular attention to it and that specific measures have been deployed there
,” the minister also said when the MP for Seine-Saint-Denis Stéphane Peu questioned him about the teachers' strike movement, which began on February 26.
Nicole Belloubet
“opened a door by agreeing to meet us
,” the PCF elected official told AFP.
“Deserted school” operations
In Seine-Saint-Denis, a child loses on average one year of lessons over their entire schooling due to teacher absences not being replaced, according to the parents' federation FCPE.
For ten days, teachers, students and parents have been carrying out
“deserted school”
operations .
The unions are demanding
“358 million euros”
to allow the creation of 5,000 teaching positions and just over 3,000 school life jobs.
Among the demands also include thresholds of 20 students per class and the renovation of aging establishments.
“We also demand the repeal of the reform of the clash of knowledge which would amount to a sorting of students”
, denounces Zoé Butzbach, co-secretary of the CGT Educ'Action 93.
The reform provides for the creation of level groups from the start of the 2024 school year in 6th and 5th grade for French and mathematics, and from September 2025 in 4th and 3rd grade.
According to the Ministry of Education, the strike was poorly attended during the second week of the social movement, with less than 1% of strikers compared to 15% at the height of the mobilization.
On the other hand, other forms of action took place with the blocking of establishments or the organization of a photographic exhibition of the most dilapidated establishments of Seine-Saint-Denis in front of the headquarters of the Île-de-France region. France in Saint-Ouen.