June 22, 2015 Teachers in France on June 11 went on strike to protest new measures aimed at revamping the country’s creaking school system. President Francois Hollande plans to keep his plans going despite widespread resistance.
Billed as countering elitism and ensuring fairer use of teaching resources, the reform has faced criticism from trade unions, the conservative opposition, sections of the left and even Germany, which fears German-language teaching in middle schools will suffer.
The SNES union’s co-secretary general Rolland Hubert doesn’t believe the reform is in the interest of the teachers.
“We’re asking the minister to finally take note that middle school teachers reject this reform. They’re not against reform in middle schools, they want things to change, but they want those reforms not to be based on this, what the minister is trying to impose on us. She can withdraw her decree, we’ll continue the discussions and try to pick up the same thread that’s been running through the evolution of the education system since 2012. There’s been a total break (with the past) and it’s a missed opportunity and a real waste for the system,”
Julie Bodnar, a German language teacher took part in the demonstration.
“We want a dialogue with the minister, we want to construct the reforms together, we also have things that we don’t like. For German, to cut second languages, we think that’s absurd. We’re really in total flux and total uncertainty,”
According to opinion polls, the president is losing more support in this area.