Student movement gains momentum

At the Forum of the Manifesto of Café pédagogique, high school student Ryad Rani, representing the Union Syndicale Lycéenne (USL), called for continuing the mobilization against a government that responds with "announcement effects to try to deceive and gain time." A broad intersyndical movement has aligned behind the movement that began in high schools and calls for general mobilization.

Forum highlights educational unity

On Saturday, October 10, the Bourse du travail hosted the Forum of the Manifesto of Café pédagogique, act 2 of Parions sur l’École and l’éducation, coordinated by Philippe Meirieu and Djéhanne Gani. Many collectives of popular education, research, and unions gathered there. In the context of high school mobilizations, the collective and unifying approach of reflection and action of the Manifesto took on strong resonance.

Intersyndical call for action

Gathered around the Manifesto of Café pédagogique, a broad intersyndical movement (SNES-FSU, SNUipp-FSU, SE-Unsa, Unsa, CGT, CFDT, FEP-CFDT), joined by the USL, represented by the highly applauded Ryad Rani, launched a call for general mobilization. The youth, who are speaking out, give new strength to demands that have been raised for years by trade unions.

Student demands and conditions

Ryad Rani set the tone by describing what some students experience: "They arrive in the classroom, the ceiling falls on their heads, and they have no teachers. That is the reality." School buildings, orientation, eliminated positions: "Our demands are legitimate. Their working conditions are our learning conditions." The student representative calls for a school where "all means are implemented everywhere on the territory, including overseas, so that everyone has the same chances of success."

Proposals and funding plans

Ryad Rani set the tone by describing what some students experience: "They arrive in the classroom, the ceiling falls on their heads, and they have no teachers. That is the reality." School buildings, orientation, eliminated positions: "Our demands are legitimate. Their working conditions are our learning conditions." The student representative calls for a school where "all means are implemented everywhere on the territory, including overseas, so that everyone has the same chances of success."

Union perspectives on the movement

The general secretary of the UNSA, Morgane Verviers, sees the student movement as words placed "on demands that trade unions have carried for years." Students, she recalls, are simply asking "to have teachers in front of every class" and denounce "classrooms where it is too cold in winter and too hot in summer." "For years we have asked for an investment plan." She reads this as "a republican promise that is not kept."

Calls for transparency and inclusion

Valérie Ginet, general secretary of the FEP-CFDT, noted that "students in private schools are in solidarity with high school students." She advocates for including private schools in the school map to better distribute students and for "making the criteria of Parcoursup transparent."

Dynamism and reform debates

Laurent Alexandre, for the CFDT, thanked the young people for "giving a bit of dynamism to society" and called for "stopping the discourse of the sanctuary school": "The outside is not a threat, it is the reality of teachers and students."

Secularism and social equity

The national secretary of secularism of the Se-Unsa and general secretary of the CNAL, Marie-Laure Tirelle, defended secularism and social mixing to "reduce social inequalities that impoverish." "It is absolutely necessary to legislate on social and school mixing in all institutions," conditioning the funding of institutions, including contracted schools, to the respect of mixing criteria. Public opinion is ready, according to an Ifop survey conducted for the Cna: "75% of parents from the public or private sector agree that funding should be conditioned on social and school mixing criteria. Therefore, we must go ahead."

Long-term challenges and hopes

Sophie Vénétitay, general secretary of the SNES-FSU, sums up that "after ten years of Macron, the school is at a turning point, because the budgetary choices made have deliberately turned their back on what the public school should be. It will take years to rebuild it." She sees this as an opportunity to "win the battle of ideas about what the Republic's School should be in 2027," that of emancipation, on its goals, its means, and its functioning. After years "crushed by reactionary ideas" (uniform, SNU, school conceived as a place of conservatism), she wants to believe that the wind is turning: "There is no inevitability. We do not want a school that sorts students." Facing the far right, it will be necessary to go see parents and citizens to tell them "there is another model of school."

Broader public service crisis

The Unsa concludes by recalling that all public services are in trouble: "Today, it is the school that sees the consequences." And no one can ignore this anymore.