Teachers’ strike. It remains the only option to act collectively and express our disagreements.

I would like to react to Isabelle de Gaulmyn’s editorial of January 10 in which the teachers’ strike is defined as – or rather reduced to – an absurd or even culpable approach which “adds disorganization to disorganization”. I was both surprised and saddened to read these lines which accuse teachers of adding to the difficulty of the moment even though they are largely suffering from constantly changing protocols, failing health measures, ministerial injunctions issued by the media at the last moment to keep schools open and this, let’s face it, at the expense of common sense.

A literature teacher in a high school, I had to be absent on Monday 3 and Tuesday 4 January because, being a contact case, I had to be tested to return and found myself unable to find a place in time despite hours of waiting in the cold and in the rain. When I returned to work, my classes were largely incomplete, one had even been sent home in the middle of a school day. The students are slowly coming back. Some are not vaccinated or are contact cases but do not respect the protocol. School life and the infirmary are outdated. We are navigating in troubled waters and we hear from the Minister of National Education that the situation is under control… That we cannot strike against a virus… But we are striking to express our saturation and our indignation at the untenable protocols . And that’s to say no, we’re not holding out, that the strike has been organised. Far from being a cowardly and lazy easy solution, the strike represents a real financial sacrifice for many of us, but it remains the only option to act collectively and voice our disagreements.

Melanie C.

.