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SCHOOLS

French teaching unions call for more school strikes

Teachers' unions in France are calling for renewed strikes on Thursday in response to the government's handling of the Covid pandemic in schools. Strike action last week saw many schools across the country close.

A French  protestor holds a sign calling for the Education Minister, Jean-Michel Blanquer, to resign.
A French protestor holds a sign calling for the Education Minister, Jean-Michel Blanquer, to resign. Further strikes are planned this week and next week.(Photo by Philippe LOPEZ / AFP)

France’s education unions are calling for strikes on Thursday, January 20th, exactly one week after strikes closed down schools across the country. 

“We need to go further to be able to work in an environment that is safe for pupils as well as adults,” said Sophie Venetita, the general secretary of the SNES-FSU union, in an interview with Europe1 on Sunday. 

Unions claimed that 75 percent of primary school teachers and 62 percent of middle school and high school teachers went on strike last week – the government said that only 38 percent of teachers across the country were striking. 

READ MORE Why are France’s teachers going on strike over Covid rules?

Following the most recent strike, the government promised to provide 5 million of the high-spec FFP2 masks to schools and the deployment of thousands of substitute teachers through to the end of the year. 

The unions themselves see this as a victory but say they need further concessions. 

In a communiqué published on twitter, the SNES-FSU branch in Seine-Saint-Denis, just outside of Paris, called for the following actions to be taken immediately: 

  • The return of class closures if one pupil tests positive;
  • Investment in anti-bacterial gel and CO2 captors to test air quality;
  • The cancellation or delay of exams; 
  • A massive recruitment drive for more teachers;
  • Salary increases.  

This union branch said: “On Monday, we haven’t seen anything concrete in our schools and establishments”. 

“We plan on maintaining the pressure to achieve real advances”. 

As with the last strikes, not all of the unions are agreed on what they want. Some are not calling for the return of the “one positive case = class closure” rule. Others want the Education Minister, Jean-Michel Blanquer, to resign. 

Further strikes are planned on January 27th. In a joint communiqué, a number of education unions said that this strike would be “massive”. They will form part of wider public and private sector strikes on that day against “austerity measures from the government and bosses.” 

The strikes come at an awkward time for French President Emmanuel Macron, who is yet to announce his intention to stand for re-election in April – but is widely tipped to do so. 

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CRIME

French schools sent threatening messages and beheading videos

At least 30 schools in the Paris region have this week received threatening messages accompanied by "shocking" footage of beheadings, the education ministry said on Thursday.

French schools sent threatening messages and beheading videos

The establishments — mainly secondary schools — have received “serious threats” containing “justification of and incitement to terrorism,” a representative of the education ministry told AFP.

The messages came through the ENT digital platform that serves as a link between teachers, pupils and parents; internal emails ; or the Pronote software used by the education ministry.

Investigators were working to “identify the perpetrators”, said the ministry, adding that psychological support had been offered to children or adults who had watched the “shocking videos”.

According to a police source, at least five high schools in the department of Yvelines, in the west of the Greater Paris region, received bomb threats between Wednesday and Thursday.

Perpetrators “hacked a student’s email address” in order to distribute the message and a beheading video, the source said.

In the department of Seine-et-Marne, to the east of the French capital, a secondary school received a message saying that explosives had been hidden throughout the establishment “in the name of Allah”, a police source said.

The latest threats follow a flurry of false bomb alerts targeted schools, airport and tourist sites in autumn 2023.

In October, a radicalised Islamist stabbed a former teacher to death in the northern town of Arras.

Prime Minister Gabriel Attal was set to chair a meeting on school security on Thursday.

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