Organised for the first time, this general assembly was an opportunity to take the pulse of this profession that is often said to be suffering but which, according to a recent survey launched by the Department of Public Education (DIP), is on the contrary doing rather well. “Everyone seems to be discovering that teachers are happy and love their job”, points out Michaël Savoy in the preamble, in reference to this survey. “Certainly, the school is doing well, but at what price?” asks Francesca Marchesini, president of the Geneva Pedagogical Society (SPG), referring to multiple attacks coming from both the Grand Council and the Council of State. In addition to the shortening of primary school teacher training, submitted to a popular vote on 22 September, she cites the increase in working hours at the CO, which sparked a lightning war last February and then the opening of negotiations.
“Incomprehensible backpedaling”
On this subject, Michaël Savoy details the proposal formulated by the DIP at the end of June: the abandonment of this cost-cutting measure which provided for two additional hours of teaching in exchange for giving up a week of vacation to devote it to training hours. Information revealed by RTS on August 13. While the consultation phase has begun, he highlights an “incomprehensible backpedaling” on the part of the PLR Anne Hiltpold who denied having put a proposal on the table on Léman Bleu on August 19. “Will the proposal from June rise from its ashes or does it no longer exist?” wonders Michaël Savoy, who intends in any case to relay the teachers’ position by October.
Overload, pressure, lack of time for training or even impact on health and unsuitable buildings: in the eyes of the unions, many problems worsen the daily lives of teachers. Mobilizing to stand up, regardless of the level of teaching, is the tone of this assembly which starts in convergence mode of struggles. Faced with the studious atmosphere of the room, Patrick Chappuis, head of the teaching sector at the SSP and himself a teacher, harangues the crowd: “Tell us what’s on your heart, you are here in a caring and secure space!”
“We continue to be perceived as privileged”
“Over time, our working conditions have been constantly reduced, but we continue to be perceived as privileged. However, people have no idea of the work we do, of the amount of tasks that accumulate,” laments a teacher in the orientation cycle who has been in the job for fifteen years. She is joined by a colleague who insists on the need to inform the population. “What worries me is the reading level of the students and the state of the buildings which sometimes makes teaching impossible,” emphasizes a CO teacher. A primary school teacher insists on the increase in the number of students with special needs. “I am in favor of a heterogeneous school, but I want to be trained accordingly.”
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