Since mid-February, this group of parents has occupied one of the schools in Guéret, with the support of teachers and local elected officials.
“What are these manners, we save money on the backs of children?”, gets annoyed Linda Bouagal. For nearly two months, this mother of a student has occupied one of the schools in Guéret, with a small group of parents of students. One class out of the existing nine must be abolished. “I who have a child with a disability, the abolition of a class, it will be his inclusion that will be endangered. What happens if my son goes into crisis in the middle of 30 students, how do we do it?” , she wonders.
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A collective was assembled when the 19 class cuts were announced in mid-February. Letters to Emmanuel Macron, to Pap Ndiaye, dead school operation, rallies, actions follow one another. From now on, we are only talking about seven deletions, but without any means of replacement, which is inconceivable, according to Delphine Guerrier, whose daughter is in CM1. It refutes the logic of figures, presented by theEnational education.
“There is still a context that is not at all the same as a few years ago. The Covid has been there, there are more behavioral problems in children, explains Delphine Guerrier. When we remove classes in places, we have to group them together, but if it’s to put the children on buses, that they have to get up very early, that’s not good either. In Creuse, we don’t have very efficient public transport either.”
“Already a department that feels a little downgraded”
On the teacher side, the anger is also great. A class must be abolished in the school of Patricia Correia, which today welcomes many children from refugee families – 29 different nationalities -, and follow-up necessarily more difficult if the numbers increase, assures the director. “When working conditions are extremely degraded, it’s good to have a small number of students. In our schools, we no longer have any means, so we manage children in difficulty alone.”
“La Creuse is a department quite devoid of doctors, speech therapists, people to support us.”
Patricia Correia, school principalat franceinfo
A good number of elected officials joined the mobilization: deputies, senators and also the president of the Departmental Council. “We are already a department that sometimes feels a little downgraded, analyzes Philippe Bayol, co-president of the association of mayors of Creuse. We are a rural department, even hyper-rural, and we need specific means to assume what the school must assume at the level of the Creuse children. The collective is also asking for 30 positions to ensure replacements, which are too often unfilled today.
For two months, these parents of students, teachers, but also elected officials from Creuse have been mobilizing against the abolition of announced posts, for the next start of the school year.
In Creuse, parents of students are mobilizing against the abolition of posts in a school – Report by Noémie Bonnin
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