Here are finally the first “concrete measures”, to use the words of the Minister of National Education. Fifteen days after the start of the movement, which celebrated its “Act IV” this Thursday against a backdrop of strong mobilization, Édouard Geffray detailed his “emergency plan” on teacher replacements. One of the high school students’ demands. Among many others.
Guest of TF1's "20 Heures", he announced to Gilles Bouleau that "several thousand" of teachers would join "in the coming hours" the establishments most affected by teacher absences. Among them, 114 high schools classified “red” and 400 classified “orange”. That is to say 514 establishments on which replacements will be concentrated. How will he go about it and how can we explain this late measure, when the non-replacement of teachers shakes up every school year?
“Thanks to software” that the minister explains he requested a year ago, and which was to be effective at the beginning of November. It makes it possible, he explains, to identify the most affected establishments and to send some 3,000 replacements there until then “badly assigned”. In other words, linking supply with demand. This says a lot about the capacity of National Education to manage its personnel.
Also read High school crisis: Édouard Geffray announces “several thousand positions” in “the coming hours” to replace absent teachers
Teachers at a high school in Belfort exercised their right of withdrawal on Thursday after a mortar of fireworks was fired in the hall of the establishment in the presence of students and teachers, we learned from reliable sources.
“Our right of withdrawal is because we feel in danger and we feel that our students are,” Benoît Guyon, professor of economics and social sciences at Courbet high school, told AFP. According to this teacher, also a SNES-FSU union representative, “at least a third” of teachers stopped work, because of a “growing feeling of no longer being safe at high school”.
The incident, which occurred around 10:15 a.m., “directly endangered the safety of students and teachers” and the establishment “was calmly evacuated”, indicated the prefecture of Territoire-de-Belfort in a press release.
The police went to the site, then “classes resumed” and “psychological support” was put in place to “reassure the young people”, the same source added. The rectorate, for its part, “strongly condemned” these facts.
According to the Belfort prosecutor, Paul-Edouard Lallois, who opened an investigation for “violence in a school establishment”, the shooting came from inside the high school, from a passageway on the 2nd floor. The hypothesis favored by investigators is that of a shot emanating from a student, but this has not been identified. The mortar, which was aimed at the entrance hall, exploded behind the backs of the students present but “did not hit anyone,” the magistrate told AFP.
Return to class or continuation of blockages? Uncertainty remains on Friday about the continuation of the high school movement, while the organizations are calling for an “Act V” on Tuesday and the government and youth representatives have agreed to continue their discussions until then.
At the end of a new day of national mobilization a little less followed than the previous ones, the student and professional inter-union called on Thursday for a new day of rallies and strike on October 13.
Calls to continue the movement were also relayed by high school student representatives received by the Ministers of National Education and Higher Education.
In total, 71,500 people demonstrated in France on Thursday, including 24,500 in Paris, the Interior Ministry said. According to the ministry, “around 96% of establishments (were) open” and 157 high schools (out of 3,700) closed at midday.
