Thousands of demonstrators gathered in front of the premises of the National Education in Bobigny to denounce "execrable" working conditions.

"How many Christine Renon will have to give their lives?" Thursday, the day of the funeral of this director who killed herself in her school in Pantin (Seine-Saint-Denis), thousands of protesters came to protest Thursday in front of the premises of the National Education in Bobigny.

"Execrable" working conditions

On a cardboard sign, Isabelle, kindergarten teacher in Clichy-sous-Bois, wrote "I am Christine Renon". "We can all recognize each other in Christine's letter Our working conditions are abhorrent, that's why we have trouble recruiting in Seine-Saint-Denis." The gesture she made, everyone could do it, "she said, shaking.

"Dictatorship of the figure"

Monday, September 23, early morning, the guardian of the school Méhul discovered the body of this woman of 58 years in the hall of the establishment. Two days earlier, just before killing herself, this director described as "hyper-invested" had taken care to send to thirty of her colleagues a three-page letter detailing "her exhaustion", the loneliness of managers, the accumulation of "time-consuming" tasks, ceaseless and contradictory reforms.

"It's the letter that turned me upside down," says Gregory, an elementary teacher in Aulnay-sous-Bois, who came with his wife, also a school teacher, and their two young children. "It's someone whose commitment we feel, the energy that has been deployed, there is not even anger," he says, while denouncing "the dictatorship of the figure that reigns in the National Education "and the" short-termism "policies.

Blanquer "ready to discuss"

Wednesday, day marked by calls for strikes and rallies throughout France, the Minister of Education Jean-Michel Blanquer said he was "ready" to discuss the status of heads of institutions.
"We must improve the situation of school directors" which is "unsatisfactory", said the minister on RTL, proposing the creation of a "monitoring committee" involving unions and professionals to "change" their status .

In Seine-Saint-Denis, half of the schools were to be closed Thursday, according to the SNUipp-FSU, the first primary union. A petition calling for "another quality of life at work" launched by an inter-union had collected Thursday over 85,000 signatures.