“We can clearly see that there is an unbearable teacher-bashing”, deplores on franceinfo, Sunday November 10, Guislaine David, co-general secretary and spokesperson for SNUipp-FSU, the first primary school union. She insists on “tremendous anger” felt by teachers, after the words of the former head of state, Nicolas Sarkozy. “I am told: 'there are not enough civil servants in National Education', but this is incredible demagoguery. The status of school teacher, (…) is 24 hours a day. week” et “6 months of the year”said the former President of the Republic during a conference in Saint-Raphaël in the Var on Friday evening.
“We cannot afford to have a million teachers,” said Nicolas Sarkozy, boasting of having reduced the number of civil servants by 150,000 when he was at the Elysée. “It’s provocation and it doesn’t come from just anyone. He’s a former president“, denounces Guislaine David.
The spokesperson for the first primary union adds that she is not surprised because, she recalls, Xavier Darcos, former Minister of National Education during Nicolas Sarkozy's five-year term, provoked “a big controversy” in 2008 stating: “Is it really logical, when we are so concerned about the proper use of funds delegated by the State, that we pass bac + 5 exams to people whose function will essentially be to make naps for children or changing their diapers? I wonder.”
Guislaine David also underlines that the former President of the Republic is at the origin “thousands of job cuts”which “caused damage”. Thus, she judges “intolerable” to see Nicolas Sarkozy, a few years later, “to hammer home this provocation with aplomb in a conference where we can clearly hear the laughter also from the audience”. According to the trade unionist, it is nothing other than “contempt” for teachers.
According to the co-secretary general and spokesperson of SNUipp-FSU, this “prof-bashing” – in other words, this desire to denigrate teachers – concerns civil servants. To support her point, Guislaine David would like to return “on the latest remarks of the Minister of the Civil Service” William Kasbarian. He wants to reduce sick leave compensation for civil servants from 100% to 90%, and introduce three unpaid waiting days, instead of one currently, during these absences – excluding serious illnesses.
That “joins this desire to destroy the public service which is constantly stopped”, deplores Guislaine David. “We really feel like we are scapegoats in this society.” The SNUipp-FSU spokesperson deplores the absence and silence of the Minister of National Education Anne Genetet and more generally of the elected officials of the central bloc. “I have not heard any support from the minister after Nicolas Sarkozy's comments. However, we need it.” Guislaine David notes that elected officials from the left at Modem have condemned the words of the ex-president but also notes that teachers “did not have the support of anyone in the government or in the right-wing or Macronist camp.”
Guislaine David deplores “a terrible gap between the power which decides, which takes measures on National Education and the field, which in fact has its hands dirty and which has been supporting the school for years”. She sees this as a worrying sign. Especially since Anne Genetet “will make announcements about the school this week” et “without consulting the union organizations, here again it is contempt for the profession.”
