People take part in a demonstration called by French teachers unions to demand clarity from the government on coronavirus measures after three changes of COVID-19 rules for classrooms in the space of a week, in Paris on Jan. 13.THOMAS SAMSON/AFP/Getty Images
Tens of thousands of French teachers angry with the government’s COVID-19 rules walked off the job on Thursday and took to the streets to demand better protection for pupils and staff against infection.
Teachers, parents and school directors have struggled to deal with the pandemic and the many twists and turns on COVID-19 rules at school. New testing requirements announced on the eve of the return from Christmas holidays and changed twice since coalesced the anger.
“We had reached such a level of exasperation, tiredness, and anger that we didn’t have any other option but to organize a strike to send a strong message to the government,” said Elisabeth Allain-Moreno, national secretary of the SE-UNSA teachers union.
The exasperation was felt in protest rallies across France, at which many called for the resignation of Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer.
“The [health] protocol mutates faster than the virus,” one poster read at a rally in the southern city of Nice.
A government source said Mr. Blanquer was unlikely to lose his job three months before the presidential election. Prime Minister Jean Castex will, however, meet teachers’ representatives later on Thursday, his office said.
Several left-wing candidates in April’s presidential election, including Socialist Anne Hidalgo, whose platform includes doubling teachers’ salaries, and hard-left Jean-Luc Mélenchon, took part in the Paris protest.
Some schools were closed on Thursday because of the strike, others were open only for children of health workers while a number operated normally.
Unions said large numbers of teachers – including about 75 per cent in primary schools and 62 per cent in high schools – joined the one-day strike. The Education Ministry’s figures were much lower, 38.5 per cent in primary schools, and just under 24 per cent in high schools.
A joint statement by 11 unions blamed the government for what it called a “chaotic situation” because of “incessant changes of footing, unworkable protocols and the lack of appropriate tools to guarantee [schools] can function properly”.
The government stood by its policy to keep classes open and requiring all pupils in contact with an infected person to get tested three times. Some degree of complication is the price to pay to keep schools open, it said.
“I know it’s tough, but a strike does not solve problems. One does not strike against a virus,” Mr. Blanquer told BFM TV.
Infections have surged in schools as France has set records with close to 370,000 new daily cases, sending families scrambling to get their children tested.
“My children and I, we’re fed up with getting tested every other day,” said Corinne Courvoisier, the mother of seven-year-old twins, who had joined the protest rally in Nice.
“We started testing Nelson and Elsa on Friday because there was a suspicion of a positive COVID-19 test in Nelson’s class, so Friday, then Sunday, then Tuesday, and then yesterday we were sent a letter from the director that there was another suspected case in Elsa’s class ... We’re never seeing the end of it.”
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