Parents of students at the Pelleport comprehensive school in the 20th arrondissement of Paris blocked the office of a school principal to protest against class closures on Monday, September 2.
Nearly 200 classes have been closed for this new school year in Paris. While the capital was expecting to see 175 classes closed at the start of the school year in the spring, 183 classes were ultimately closed: 125 in primary schools and 58 in secondary schools.
A situation which prompted parents of pupils at the Pelleport comprehensive school in the 20th arrondissement to block the school principal’s office on Monday 2 September.
A shock operation to show their opposition to the closure of a class in this school in the 20th arrondissement. In this area, around twenty classes have closed for this school year.
“To come to the aid of an institution that is ruined”
“We are engaging in civil disobedience to come to the aid of an institution that is being ruined by those who should be protecting it. Ruined by the top of the rectorate hierarchy,” denounces Julien Pamart, a representative of the parents of students, on BFM Paris Île-de-France.
In July, the national education system decided to close a class in the school. A choice that leads to numbers, according to the parents of pupils, of 25 to 26 pupils per class. A situation that is not sustainable for them.
“With problematic double levels each time, between CP and CE2 for example. CP is the entry into reading,” maintains the parent. “In REP schools, there was a reform brought by Emmanuel Macron which ordered a doubling for numbers of less than 17 students. We have 25 students when we could have had a CP class with 20 students, which would be closer to the norm.”
“No decision in a decision-making government”
In July, elected officials from the Parisian left called for a moratorium on these closures. Several of them came to support the parents of students this Monday morning. They criticize a decision taken by a resigning government.
“There needs to be a better match between the contract at the city level and at the national level,” assures Lila Djellali, environmentalist deputy to the mayor of the 20th arrondissement and elected representative of the Pelleport school.
And he added: “and above all, that we do not make a decision in a resigning government. And that it remains a possibility for a future government.”
The mobilization of these parents of students must continue this Tuesday morning.
