One week after the start of the school year, teachers’ unions are calling for a nationwide strike on Tuesday 10 September to denounce the generalisation of assessments in classes from CP to CM2 and more so at local level in defence of schools in the Seine-Saint-Denis region.
In Paris, a demonstration bringing together the two strike groups will leave the Luxembourg Gardens at 1.30 pm towards the Ministry of Education. Processions will also be organised in several cities in France.
At national level, the unions SNUipp-FSU, CGT-Educ’action and SUD-Education are calling on school teachers not to pass these tests, which begin on Tuesday. “block”This mobilization promises to be poorly followed.
“The context at the beginning of the year does not allow for a massive strike on these issues, especially since it only concerns primary school teachers”Guislaine David, general secretary of the SNUipp-FSU, the main primary school union (nursery and primary school), explains to Agence France-Presse (AFP). “We don’t need these assessments to know the level of our students, teachers are capable of working on these assessments themselves”he explained during a press conference on the return to school.
“Source of stress”
These evaluations “They have no effect on student success and they do not affect all areas of education, because they are very focused on French, mathematics and in reading we assess fluency and not comprehension”added Guislaine David, regretting that“Teachers are deprived of their pedagogical freedom”According to the union, these tests are a “source of stress” for teachers, students and families.
More locally, the teachers’ unions of Seine-Saint-Denis also called for a strike on Tuesday, deploring a “catastrophic return” and thus relaunching his movement launched in the spring in favour of an emergency plan for public education in the department, the poorest in mainland France.
“A student from 1993 receives 6,200 euros of state investment per year compared to the national average of 8,800, not counting the absurd public subsidies granted to private education to the detriment of public schools”“said Claire Fortassin, co-secretary of SNES-FSU 93, during a press conference on the return to school.
Not all posts in the Île-de-France department have been filled following the competitions organised in June, and the inter-union organisation is detecting a shortage of more than 400 school teachers, as well as several thousand pupils who support disabled students. (AESH).