The teachers had been waiting for a reaction from their responsible minister for four days. Since the former President of the Republic, Nicolas Sarkozy, violently attacked teachers’ working hours on Friday, November 8, during a conference organized in Saint-Raphaël (Var). “The condition of a school teacher, (…) “It’s twenty-four hours a week.” AND “six months of the year”, launched the former head of state, believing that “We cannot afford to have a million teachers”. Before ironically adding, amid laughter from the audience: “So I know, you have to prepare for lessons… Kindergarten, large section…”
These statements immediately provoked indignation from the teaching community and strong condemnations from the left and the center regarding the ” contempt “ of the former president and his “abysmal ignorance” work in kindergarten. The Minister of National Education finally took his position on Tuesday, November 12.
Questioned on the subject by Agence France-Presse, Anne Genetet refused to “judge” these comments but stated his ” support “ to the teachers who “work hard” AND “in difficult conditions.” “I don’t agree. “I don’t understand your words.”he later declared on the sidelines of a trip to Haÿ-les-Roses (Val-de-Marne). “I saw that they [les enseignants] “Do not skimp on your schedules, far from it, your schedule volume is very important, we must stop limiting ourselves to the time in front of the student”the minister insisted, wishing “make things clear.”
painful memory
A support expected but considered late by the representatives of the 850,000 teachers, outraged both by the degrading statements of November 8 and by the silence of the members of the government or their parliamentary supporters. “When the police are attacked, the Minister of the Interior immediately positions himself to defend them; There the teachers are being attacked by a former head of state and our minister does not say anything before being questioned.”laments Guislaine David of Snuipp-FSU, the first primary school union.
At a time when successive governments continue to proclaim the necessary “revaluation of the teaching profession”Nicolas Sarkozy’s speech had the effect of a painful flashback. The statement that his work time would be summarized in his mandatory presence time in front of the students is an old refrain from the former president, who already used the same terms in 2007, 2012 and even in 2016.
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