Fewer and fewer professionals to welcome young children, degraded working conditions, salaries deemed unworthy, lack of training…, the early childhood sector mobilized this morning to make things change. Starting from Garibaldi Square in Nice, around fifty of them united their forces to make their voices heard.
After student demands, it is now the turn of early childhood professionals to launch a strike and demonstration movement that is spreading throughout France. Their main demand is simple: the supervision ratio must be strengthened, that is to say, reduce the number of children in charge of one professional.
As Marianne Caruso, representative of the early childhood section at the CGT union Nice Métropole Côte d’Azur, explains, the shortage of professionals in the early childhood sector undermines reception conditions: « Currently, the supervision ratio is one professional for five children who cannot walk, and one for eight who can walk. We want one for five, regardless of age, so that we can truly meet children’s needs. »
Beyond their own working conditions, professionals in the sector believe that an entire system is suffering from this mismanagement. « Today, this shortage directly impacts children in their development, and that is dramatic, both for babies and for their families », Marianne warned before the procession departed.
Same sentiment for Gaëlle, childcare worker in the Nice hinterland: « We’re here to say that a child is not an object. We cannot be asked to supervise many children, all the time, in deteriorating conditions. We cannot clone ourselves. »
In the crowd, the signs perfectly expressed these demands: « Trained but not superhuman, we are not octopuses » or even « a country that takes poor care of its babies is a country that is doing poorly », one could read by scanning the group.
What solutions to change things?
To effectively combat this shortage of workers in childcare facilities, the solution is clear for Marianne Caruso: « We must restore attractiveness to our professions ».
To achieve this, several solutions are put forward by the movement: salary increases, enhanced training, recognition of job hardship and development of training institutions. All means are good for rebalancing the ratio between the number of children and the number of professionals.
Like Gaëlle, Loana is a childcare worker. She emphasizes the difficulties she faces in her facility: « Imagine yourself with eight children at the same time, it’s impossible to manage properly, and it’s increasingly exhausting for us […] I also think the salaries are far too low compared to the responsibilities on our shoulders. »
In many childcare centers, the pressure on professionals is difficult to sustain in the long term, and many end up on sick leave, often without being replaced. The remaining childcare workers must then redouble their efforts to cope with a number of children that does not decrease.
So for Marianne Caruso, the situation is urgent. The solutions, she lists them without difficulty. She hopes that the State will finally hear their distress: « the government must unlock resources for the early childhood sector, that’s obvious. We can no longer recruit. We need to develop schools, regain quality in training, inspire vocations. »
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