Skip to main content

Sick of Zoom – teachers and students protest in France



French schoolteachers and university students staged nationwide strikes and protests on Tuesday 26 January 2021 as they joined forces to demand more government support amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

“No virus protocol, no school!” read posters carried by schoolteachers, demanding better virus protections at their schools, which have remained open since September 2020 amid concern over learning gaps and to ease the burden on working parents.

 

“Sick of Zoom!” chanted university students, frustrated that they've been barred from campuses since October. One placard said "Se lever pour un Zoom. C'est insultant!" (Get up for a Zoom. It's insulting!)

 

Aside from virus fears, the common concern at Tuesday's protests in Paris, Marseille and other cities around France, was economic. Teachers’ unions, who are negotiating with the government for improved conditions, want higher salaries and for the government to hire more educators after years of cost cuts. It is estimated that teachers have lost an average of 275 euros per month in purchasing power over the past decade.

 

Other protesters stressed the need to hire more supply teachers, noting that colleagues are seldom replaced when they fall sick.

 

The education ministry said about 12% of teachers nationwide took part in Tuesday's strike, though unions said the figure was higher.

 

Students, meanwhile, are seeking more government financial support and want to call attention to emotional troubles among young people cut off from friends, professors, and job opportunities amid the pandemic. With French universities in limbo amid the latest resurgence in COVID-19 infections, concerns are increasing over the social, psychological, and academic consequences of months of lockdowns, curfews and online teaching for students holed up in cramped dwellings many can’t afford.

 

Acknowledging their concerns last week, President Emmanuel Macron said that students would be allowed to return to campus one day a week, provided that lecture halls and classrooms don’t exceed 20% capacity. Macron also said he would look to ensure that all students have access to one-euro meals twice a day at university cafeterias, as well as psychological support free of charge.

 

While welcoming the measures, student unions want more financial support and a return to the rotating scheme that was in place before the country’s second nationwide lockdown, with students alternating between online and classroom teaching.


UNEF, France's largest student union, has called for a 1.5 billion ($1.8 billion) emergency plan to boost grants and help students pay for accommodation.



 

Regus, a workspace company, conducted a poll of professional workers in relation to Zoom and video conference calls. Video calls are the future said 44% of respondents, while 23% said they can take them or leave them, 23% were bored with them, and 10% said that nothing had changed and they weren’t affected by them.







 

MARTINA NICOLLS

Website

Martinasblogs

Publications

Facebook

Paris Website

Animal Website

SUBSCRIBE TO MARTINA NICOLLS FOR NEWS AND UPDATES 

 

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author  of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce  (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

 


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh  (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. ...
1 comment
Read more

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sister cities discussed: Canberra and Islamabad

Two months ago, in March 2015, Australia and Pakistan agreed to explore ways to deepen ties. The relationship between Australia and Pakistan has been strong for decades, and the two countries continue to keep dialogues open. The annual bilateral discussions were held in Australia in March to continue engagements on a wide range of matters of mutual interest. The Pakistan delegation discussed points of interest will include sports, agriculture, economic growth, trade, border protection, business, and education. The possible twinning of the cities of Canberra, the capital of Australia, and Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, were also on the agenda (i.e. called twin towns or sister cities). Sister City relationships are twinning arrangements that build friendships as well as government, business, culture, and community linkages. Canberra currently has international Sister City relationships with Beijing in China and Nara in Japan. One example of existing...
1 comment
Read more