Paris (AFP)
Negotiations on the increase in teachers' salaries, promised in the pension reform, will resume "by the end of June", announced Jean-Michel Blanquer on Tuesday.
These discussions "relate to the subject of remuneration but more generally the exercise of the profession: (...) their working conditions must be better, said the Minister of National Education on RMC-BFMTV.
"We need to pay our teachers better, in the context of a more flexible career where they can make more choices," added the minister.
When negotiations were launched in January, Jean-Michel Blanquer had announced to the trade union organizations his intention to devote 500 million euros to these revaluations which will take effect in January 2021.
The government has pledged that salary increases will guarantee the same level of retirement for teachers who could potentially lose a lot with the reform, which has been stopped since the health crisis.
"There was a dimension dependent on pensions, but there is a dimension independent of pensions, in particular to enhance early career. I am very attentive to this, if only for the attractiveness of the profession for young people, and so the wages of the youngest must increase, "continued Mr. Blanquer.
In addition, while the schools and colleges of metropolitan France reopen very gradually this Tuesday just like the lycées of the departments classified green, the minister underlined that "all the pupils (had) vocation to return, even a little" in their establishment before summer vacation.
On this point, the Minister considered that "in Paris, the children were insufficiently received" and that the "situation deserves improvements".
The strict health protocol, deployed since the start of deconfinement on May 11, will be maintained at least until the end of the school year, he also recalled. "If things continue to evolve positively, it will certainly have to be alleviated" at the start of the September school year, he added.
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