French school teachers and education staff held a crippling strike and nationwide protest marches last Thursday over what they say are chaotic and unsafe working conditions brought about by ever-changing, last-minute anti-Covid measures imposed without consultation by the education ministry, and which they too often learn about from the media. Mathilde Goanec has been hearing from teachers and local councils about their nigh impossible mission amid the government’s determination to keep schools open.
French teachers and other education workers staged a nationwide strike on Thursday, accompanied by street marches whih official figures said drew a turnout of 78,000, in protest at what they say are the government's too demanding and regularly changing anti-Covid measures to keep schools open.
The ongoing Coronavirus health crisis facing France is leading to unprecedented political change. Large sections of society are on the march: taking charge of their own professions themselves and setting up numerous support structures and initiatives. And as François Bonnet argues in this op-ed article, this sudden land grab of some very political arenas by new groups has left society's traditional institutions and political forces flat-footed.
Every year the French education ministry sends a small number of teachers to begin work in Rabat. Their mission: to educate the heir to the Moroccan throne and a select handful of that country's elite. Lénaïg Bredoux reports on an exclusive college that is shrouded in mystery and which few in either France or Morocco are willing to talk about.
About 130,000 teachers took to streets in towns and cities across France last week for a day of strike and protest at 14,000 job cuts in the state education system announced for 2012. The planned cuts will bring the number of teaching jobs axed under President Nicolas Sarkozy's five-year mandate to 80,000. Meanwhile, the numbers of pupils each year entering schools nationwide are increasing. Cécile Alibert and Noemie Rousseau joined the demonstration in Paris last week to interview teachers about their individual experiences and complaints.
