“Things are bad,” says Jean-Louis Innocenti about the National Education, a technology teacher at l’Archet middle school in Nice. This academic and national union leader from the SNES for non-permanent staff attended the gathering-debate on Tuesday starting at 3 PM at the Place du Palais de Justice in Nice. SNES general secretary, Richard Ghis, had invited representatives of presidential candidates. The representatives of Franรงois Bayrou, Nicolas Sarkozy, Philippe De Villiers, Jean-Marie Le Pen, among others, were absent, so the debate could not take place even though local spokespersons for Marie-George Buffet, Josรฉ Bovรฉ, and Sรฉgolรจne Royal were present. High school students also joined the gathering to support it.
The national mobilization called by SNES, SNEP, and SNUEP from the FSU, the UNSEN-CGT, and numerous sections of other federation unions in Education was to protest especially against the elimination of 5,000 positions at the start of the school year, the decree called “de Robien”, increasing the working hours for some teachers, and against the modified status of physical education teachers (see below). Participation was limited with 37% strikers according to unions and 15% according to the ministry. Gilles de Robien, Minister of National Education, almost rejoiced about it on LCI: “Today, if there are fewer teachers on strike, it’s because they understood that the social justice measures I’ve taken are for the teachers and in favor of the students.” Dominique Henrot, Academic Secretary of the National Education Physical Teaching Union and physical education teacher at Carnot High School in Cannes explains the low mobilization: “We would have been more satisfied if we were 5,000! A day of strike is a thirtieth of the salary gone. But we are here for the colleagues who couldn’t mobilize. It is difficult to carry out the right action. To conduct national actions, this was the only week since no zone is on vacation.” Dominique is there to get the “de Robien” decree which revisits the statutes decided in 1950 and the Fillon law abolished. He wants to protect his discipline: Physical and Sports Education. For him being a physical education teacher differs from being a sports teacher: “The place of physical and sports education and school sports within the educational system is increasingly weakened. Presidential candidates all highlight the importance of physical and sports activities but most of them maintain a troubling confusion between ‘sport’ and ‘physical and sports education’. Campaigns carried out to face the growing obesity among the population, as well as the current troubles sport is facing (violence in stadiums, doping, cheating, carelessness), necessitate deep work directed at youth. Who better than qualified teachers within the framework of the public education service can contribute to the true training of these future adults?” He emphasizes their competence to impact the motor skills of children, teaching them how to move.
Jean-Louis Innocenti, like many of his colleagues, has many ideas to suggest and wants to fight against the precariousness of “non-permanent” staff. He speaks for the teachers to Nice-Premium: “People think that teachers only work the hours spent in class. You should know that for every hour of teaching, we have 1h30 of preparation.” He thus dispels the misconception that teachers have lighter schedules compared to other professions. Regarding the level of students, he does not consider it catastrophic, again contrary to the ideas one might hear here and there: “It is generally maintained. What’s missing are supervisors to help us with discipline management. In an hour of class, we spend twenty minutes managing discipline. Having fewer students per class would really help things.” Jean-Louis only hopes one thing for the presidential election: “National Education must be the government’s priority. To save it, a leftist policy must be implemented. We’ve seen what it’s been like with the right, with Franรงois Fillon and Gilles de Robien. Franรงois Bayrou is also the right. He was a minister under Edouard Balladur.” Dominique Henrot is less harsh with the UDF candidate: “He was the least bad of the ministers. If he is elected, we will judge based on facts. He is ready to discuss with the unions and that is all we ask.”
The discussion at the Place du Palais de Justice was brief and closed since many representatives of the 12 candidates were missing and those present were all opposed to the government. National education certainly deserves a debate.
Decree on physical education teachers.
