Le Figaro Nantes
Struggling teachers usually make their voices heard by demonstrating on public roads.
This time, they delivered their claim in the studio – and in song.
A group of teachers from the René-Guy college, in Montoir-de-Bretagne, near Saint-Nazaire, accompanied by colleagues from Nantes and Rezé published a clip on March 2 featuring their very free cover of the title of Anne Sylvestre,
People who doubt.
Renamed
The Chaos of Knowledge
, their interpretation of the melancholy song thus pours its haunting melody into the service of… their opposition to the establishment of level groups in middle school.
“There are 30 groups, we don't even have room to put a stool; there would still be a class where there are only 15 of them, it’s the group of bad ones,”
sings a teacher, after an introduction recalling Gabriel Attal’s wish for a
“clash of knowledge”
.
A colleague speaks of
“a first in class”
in Ukraine, now
“lagging behind”
and which should not be
“stigmatized”
;
another mentions the case of a
“dyslexic” child “who strings together zeros”
.
After a few refrains –
“Where do we put this one?, Where do we put this one?”
- the group of ten teachers concludes in apotheosis with an air of
“we don’t have the level for the level groups”
.
A song signed, “De Nivo group”.
Less than two weeks after it was posted online, the video - relayed the same day by local politicians - exceeded 25,000 views on Wednesday.
Or an unexpected Everest, compared to the horizon of a thousand views that the teachers best hoped to reach.
“We wanted to get the message across to families,”
French teacher Elena Bascou, who participated in the video,
testified for our colleagues at
Ouest France .
“
Classifying according to a level is simplistic, the students are richer than that,”
she added.
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Supported at the end of last year by Gabriel Attal, then Minister of National Education, the establishment of level groups in French and mathematics at the start of the 2024 school year aimed to raise the level of students in sixth and fifth grades.
This plan supposed to
“raise the general level at school”
was renewed in January, during the general policy speech of Gabriel Attal, just appointed Prime Minister.
This perspective did not fail to take a dislike to unions and teachers alike.
Coincidence or not with the calendar, the new Minister of National Education, Nicole Belloubet, finally let go of this flagship measure of Gabriel Attal's program, by announcing on March 7 the relaxation of the system.
The generalization of level groups leaves room for
“needs groups”,
from which the heads of establishments will be able to exempt themselves
“by way of exception”
.
That is to say the beginning of a backpedal, just five days after the online release of
Chaos des savoirs
.
The song will not stop there and should now be invited into a giant karaoke, during the mobilization of the civil service scheduled for March 19.