French teachers protest against education reforms

France’s schoolteachers and students have walked out of their jobs across the country to protest against the government’s planned education reforms, Press TV reports.

Teachers walked off on Friday, with their students rallying to their aid to protest against French President Francois Hollande’s proposed educational reforms in the country.

During his time in office, former President Nicolas Sarkozi slashed some 80,000 teaching jobs in an effort to reduce spending. Hollande has vowed to hire 60,000 teachers, particularly in top schools during his five years in office.

“The problem is that Sarkozy lowered our funding so much that the money that Hollande is adding is not getting us back to our levels in previous years,” says Mathieu Logothetis from the public sector workers’ union FSU, which includes secondary school teachers’ union the SNES.

Critics say proposals by Hollande’s Minister of Education Vincent Peillon would worsen France’s economic and social inequalities by granting more resources to the richest areas.

“Our region has had so many students in recent years that we need more money in our budgets rights now, just to get things through 2014. We already have serious overcrowding and the more students in the classroom the less attention each child receives,” Logothetis added.

Earlier last year, hundreds of teachers staged a rally over government plans for a five-day working week, which resulted in the closure of most primary schools across the country.

Teachers complained of the excessive working hours, saying the addition of the extra day to their four-day working week would have no financial gain.