Louise Sallé and Wilfried Devillers, edited by Solène Delinger 8:09 p.m., January 13, 2022

After the fiasco of the health protocols in force in the schools, modified several times in a few days, the educational staff decided to go on strike this Thursday.

Announced as "historic" by the teachers' unions, the mobilization was important but far from being "historic".

77,500 people took to the streets across France. 

This mobilization was to be "historic".

This Thursday, educational staff went on strike to denounce the “unmanageable” health measures announced by Jean-Michel Blanquer, then lightened by Jean Castex.

Nearly 78,000 teachers and other National Education staff took to the streets. 

8,200 demonstrators in Paris

One thing is certain: there was no crowd in the demonstrators.

A few thousand people took to the streets in several major cities in France, around 3,000 in Rennes, Bordeaux, Marseille and more than 1,000 in Clermont-Ferrand and Lille.

In the center of Paris, they were 8,200 teachers, educational staff, parents of students and were particularly upset against the health protocols which follow one another. 

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“We are at the 50th protocol. We can no longer see clearly. As soon as we apply a protocol, two days later, there is another one that comes out in the media and it is 45 pages to apply the next morning", protests Rémi, school director in Val-d'Oise, at the microphone of Europe 1. "If we receive it on Sunday evening in a paid media, how to apply it on Monday and How do your colleagues apply them? We discover these protocols at the same time as the parents of students".

Blanquer in the sights of teachers

Last-minute health measures that threaten students above all.

In the face of absences linked to Covid, the continuity of education is often impossible.

"This week, I had to take between five and twenty students, but never at the same time. It was not regular. And for the students, it is not possible to learn properly", testifies Aurélie, teacher in PC. 

In the Parisian procession today, many voices denounced the contempt of the government and demanded the resignation of Jean-Michel Blanquer. 

38.5% of strikers according to the ministry

Regarding the strikers, the mobilization is difficult to quantify because of the difference in counting between the unions and the ministry.

But these figures do not seem to beat the records of the teachers' strike against the pension reform in 2019.

According to the unions, 75% of teachers were absent in kindergarten and primary.

A figure which in fact includes headteachers, substitutes, specialist teachers, but which is based on a sample of militant schools, which inflates the result a little.

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The ministry has meanwhile identified 38.5% of strikers, but only among tenured teachers who teach in front of a class.

Finally, in secondary education, for the unions, 62% of the teachers were on strike, against 24% according to the ministry, which however only counted those absent at the end of the morning.

As secondary school teachers are not obliged to declare themselves in advance, the rate of strikers will be specified later.