Teachers and parents in the northeastern suburbs of Paris have staged weeks of strikes and protests in the lead-up to the Paris Olympics, using the event to support struggling public schools in mainland France's poorest regions. We are calling for urgent measures to address this issue. Visit many of the major Olympic venues.
Winding through a maze of roadworks, Saint-Ouen resident Zora Sheikh is unimpressed by the vast resources being poured into this Parisian suburb in preparation for the Olympics.
The bulk of the Olympic Village will be built this summer in Saint-Ouen, on the northern edge of Paris. It is part of a huge infrastructure project that authorities are touting as a game-changing legacy for Paris' poorest Seine-Saint-Denis region. Mainland France.
But Sheikh is more concerned about the chronic teacher shortage, which deprives children of hundreds of hours of learning over the course of the school year.
“It's infuriating to see the money they're spending on the Olympics, which are only a few weeks away,” said the mother of five. “The education of our children is where the future lies.”
Sheikh warned that her children's school, where French, maths and music teachers have been absent for months, is facing a shortage of substitute teachers, nurses and support staff. She also lamented the crumbling infrastructure where her teachers and students have to contend with pest infestations, leaky roofs and unheated and unventilated classrooms.
These problems are not unique to Seine-Saint-Denis, but have been exacerbated by a wave of immigrants, concentrated in this densely populated, working-class area that is home to France's youngest population.
“When schools are dumps, kids feel disrespected. It's like they're being told, 'This is all you deserve,'” Cech said, adding that parents and teachers across the U.S. I echoed the voices of dissatisfaction. Neuf Troyes (9-3), as this area is commonly known by its administrative number and postal code marker.
“We are not asking for special treatment,” she added. “We just want to give our kids equal opportunities.”
promote inequality
The failure to live up to the French Republic's promise of equal opportunity is documented by a parliamentary report highlighting the plight of French schools. Neuf Trois (93). Councilor Stéphane Pou, co-author of one such report published last November, said: “Seine-Saint-Denis schools are not delivering on the republican promise. They are exacerbating social inequalities rather than reducing them.” said.
Growing anger over the current situation has resulted in parents and teachers unions forming an unusual coalition. Together they staged weeks of strikes and protests across the region and in central Paris, demanding urgent action to support struggling schools.
At one of these protests, held in front of Saint-Ouen City Hall, local art teacher Eva said that despite further loss of learning time for children, parents were widely supportive of the strike action. He said he is doing so.
“Parents want to see the teachers in each classroom. They're tired of not having more staff,” she said. “They also want respect and consideration for the school and wider community.”
The teachers union has developed a detailed plan. make an emergency plan The (emergency plan) for schools in Seine-Saint-Denis is said to cost €358 million, twice the cost of the Olympic Aquatic Center to be built just north of Saint-Ouen. Measures proposed in the plan include hiring about 5,000 teachers and 2,000 support staff for students with disabilities.
Marie-Noël Baussel, local director of parents' group FCPE, said such measures were needed to restore trust in French public schools at a time when the flight of middle-class families to the private sector has exacerbated social divisions. He said action was necessary.
Furthermore, she added: She said: “We often hear about the need for more social diversity, yet the republic's education system continues to be stabbed in the back.”
Vaucel said local schools are having a hard time attracting new students due to the difficult conditions in Seine-Saint-Denis. As a result, they become overly dependent on teachers who are younger, less experienced, and at the lower end of the pay scale, many of whom end up dropping out.
“We have young teachers who are motivated and passionate about their work, but they are working in impossible conditions,” she said. “Abusing teachers is the same as abusing children.”
'Millions of dollars for uniforms – But I don't have money to buy toilet paper or soap.'
The Seine-Saint-Denis protests culminated in a nationwide strike against education reforms pushed by Prime Minister Gabriel Attal's government, which were fiercely resisted by a united front of trade unions.
The measures, announced last year when Attal was education minister, include controversial plans to divide secondary school students into groups based on their level in maths and French. The government also announced that compulsory uniforms, long advocated by right-wing and far-right politicians, will be trialled in dozens of schools as a test for potentially making them compulsory nationwide.
The promotion of school uniforms, touted by the government as a way to reduce social inequality and protect France's secular values, has been controversial in various regions such as Seine-Saint-Denis, with a highly publicized ban on abayas in schools. It started a few months later. A loose-fitting robe that some Muslim girls prefer.
read moreFrance to introduce school uniforms to reduce bullying and inequality
At a late-night rally this week at a primary school in Montreuil, one of several such rallies held across the eastern suburbs of Paris, teachers and parents spoke about the cost of the Attar reform plan and the challenges faced by French schools. He decried the move as a distraction from the real problem.
In a nearby classroom, children wrote postcards to the Elysée Palace, asking President Emmanuel Macron for a playground, a substitute teacher or “salt in the cafeteria” and not to separate “good students” from “bad students.” .
“The government spends a lot of money on uniforms that no one wants, but my school doesn't have money to buy toilet paper or soap,” said a 15-year-old, one of the few local high school students who took part in the rally. Agathe said.
Her account of staff shortages and dilapidated buildings was captured in a viral video filmed by students and teachers at Blaise Cendral High School in Severin, northeast of Paris, which took viewers on a tour of the school's dilapidated grounds. It resonated with the TikTok video.
“We're at Blaise Sandlers, and of course we have buckets for leaks because we don't have a ceiling,” one student said in the video, which was released in just one day. It has been viewed more than 1 million times. “I'm a French teacher at Blaise Sandral. Of course, when I was pregnant, the students didn't have French lessons for six months,” added one of the staff members.
The teachers were immediately summoned to school authorities, which the union denounced as a form of intimidation.
Take advantage of games
Olivier Gallet, an elementary school teacher and member of the South Education Union, said the success of the TikTok video highlighted the multifaceted nature of a long-lasting movement that has already surpassed past protests.
He praised the “unprecedented solidarity between teachers, parents and students,” but also praised the support from politicians and local authorities in towns like Montreuil, which has allowed parents and teachers to occupy school grounds. did.
On April 2nd, the city of Montreuil and 11 other municipalities in Seine-Saint-Denis sent a formal notice to the French government to guarantee equality in state education.Adopt trade union recommendations make an emergency planissued a decree ordering each town to pay the state 500 euros per day until “resources commensurate with educational needs” are provided.
The decree was canceled on Friday by Montreuil's administrative court, which ruled it had overstepped the mayor's authority.
Two days after the lawsuit began, the teachers' union and FCPE held a rally outside the brand new Olympic Aquatic Center in Saint-Denis, with President Macron attending the opening ceremony, announcing their intention to use the Paris Games to step up. showed that. Increase pressure on the government.
Returning to the protests in Saint-Ouen, left-wing lawmaker Eric Coquerel, who chairs the National Assembly's finance committee, called for further action as preparations for the global sporting event enter its final stages.
“93 days until the Olympics,” he said. “I want people to realize that preparations will not be smooth until the tournament. Neuf Trois You get what you deserve. ”
