The teachers at the high school went on strike again Thursday. This time, they protested the Education Ministry's decision to get rid of 16,000 teaching positions across the country, including ten at our school. This is in addition to the 50,000 positions suppressed in the last three years. Now, landing a teaching job in France is already difficult-- it requires a written and oral exam, and only the top scorers get offered positions. The suppression of posts will no doubt contribute to an already mind-boggling unemployment rate in France. As for existing teachers, the prospect of getting fired would normally be pretty remote. Teachers, like other public functionaries, would normally be "relocated" or given some menial job in the school system rather than just being kicked to the street. (One of the teachers here joked about how she could be the photocopy lady if her post gets suppressed.) However, with no more teaching jobs to be had, people are uncertain about what will happen.
In addition to the suppression of posts, teachers also protested the fact that teachers are generally becoming overworked, underfunded, and vastly under-appreciated-- to most Americans, the job description of a public school teacher. In the U.S., we tend to take the deplorable status of teachers for granted. I applaud these Frenchmen for doing something about it. Will it work? Who knows. But at least they're not standing by, watching their jobs deteriorate into the American norm.
