The university is indeed on strike. The lecture hall was full on Monday morning for the General Assembly of the Faculty of Letters. Teachers and students speak with one voice and are mobilizing to make their demands heard. They will demonstrate again on Tuesday afternoon. The Carlone and Saint Jean d’Angély campuses are expected to gather on the forecourt of the Faculty of Psychology in the morning, before heading to Valrose by noon. The three campuses will depart at 2 p.m. towards Place Masséna.
Teachers and students are protesting against the reforms proposed by Valérie Pécresse, the Minister of Higher Education and Research. They are calling for the withdrawal of the decree amending the teacher-researcher status, the reform of teacher training, and the cessation of the policy of eliminating and precarizing positions. “For the first time, everyone agrees, regardless of their political opinions or their union,” admits Jean-Paul Aubert, a lecturer in Spanish and active member of the National Union of Higher Education. “Gradually, students are realizing that the situation is becoming increasingly critical,” he adds.
Two crucial points
The government intends to modify two crucial points. The first questions one of the missions of teacher-researchers, namely research. Their role would thus be reduced to pure and simple teaching. The second seeks to modify the training of young teachers. During their master’s, they benefit from a year as a trainee teacher. This would be eliminated. “They want to prevent us from doing research to develop teaching. We cannot accept that. The Ministry is also disengaging from the training of young teachers. It’s criminal to put inexperienced teachers in front of students. And of course, all this has one explanation: to save money,” explains Jean-Paul Aubert from SNESUP.
