Teachers’ unions in France, representing both the public and private sector workers, have jointly called a strike on 27 September to denounce the deterioration of the country’s school system and demand ‘zero job cuts in 2012’.
A number of EI’s French affiliates will participate in the demonstrations to urge the government to review its 2012 draft budget cuts, which will see the abolition of 14,000 jobs in the education sector, despite the projected number of students set to rise.
With the state of France’s school system becoming a key issue in the 2012 presidential election, the General Secretary of the primary school teachers’ union, SNUIPP-FSU, Sébastien Sihr, has argued that the strike will be a good opportunity to “deliver a powerful message for education to be put at the heart of our country.” His union expects more than 50 per cent of teachers to go on strike because most job cuts will come in the provision of early year’s education which faces 9,000 job losses out of the 14,000 across the entire sector.
UNSA-Education’s General Secretary, and a member of EI’s Executive Board, Patrick Gonthier, has called for prudence “towards a government that does not give anything” as teachers await the presidential election.
The French Education Minister, Luc Chatel, has said that he is willing to “take full responsibility” for job cuts, arguing that “the real issue is the tailoring,” not the “quantity” of teaching.
This ‘tailoring’ of teaching is highly criticised by unions, who argue that cuts in jobs are playing with opportunities of students’ education.
Teacher unionists are also protesting against overcrowded classrooms, low salaries, reforms to teacher training practices, and the dearth of substitute teachers – which is an acute problem, especially in private schools.
EI deplores the decision of national authorities not to invest in education at times of crisis. The most recent Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development report points out ‘the importance of social inequalities is still very relevant to explain average results from 15-year-old students in France. EI support its members’ demands for the French government to increases its efforts to ensure quality training for teachers and education for all in the country.