Teachers were striking across France on Thursday for better pay and conditions, increasing pressure on the embattled education minister who has been embroiled in a series of controversies, reports FRANCE 24.
The walkout is "a warning to the government" about teachers' "daily life, their suffering at work and the lack of recognition, especially in their pay," said primary school teachers' union FSU-Snuipp, predicting "hundreds of schools will be closed".
The union added that "the situation has been inflamed by the nomination of a part-time minister who has forfeited her credibility".
With former education minister Gabriel Attal promoted to prime minister, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra was given the key education brief alongside sports, including this year's Paris Olympics, and youth.
Thursday's strike, which coincides with ongoing protests by agricultural workers, had been planned since before the government reshuffle that put Oudéa-Castéra in place.
But she set teachers bristling from the moment of her nomination, as she claimed she had put her son into an exclusive Catholic private school because of "loads of hours with no proper replacement" teacher at his state primary.