“Angry” parents of Ile-de-France students announced Thursday that they are collectively suing the State from which they are claiming compensation for the non-replacement of absent teachers.
These parents of pupils from schools, colleges or high schools in Val-de-Marne, Seine-Saint-Denis or Paris have decided to “remind the State that school is compulsory, and that having teachers is not an option”, explained during a press conference Bérengère Vallet, mother of Montreuil (Seine-Saint-Denis).
They want “teachers trained, supported, working in good conditions, replaced when they are absent, everywhere and for all the children of the Republic and from the start of the next school year”.
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“110 hours of uninsured lessons”
“My child, who was in 3rd grade, only had two months of French in his year and he had almost no techno teacher. My other son in 5th grade didn’t have Spanish lessons for ten weeks,” Nadège Py, whose children are educated in the Marie Curie – Gérard Philippe group of colleges, in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, explained to the press. , where the initiative came from.
Between September and April this year, “we calculated that he had 110 hours of uninsured lessons,” she said. “We are not doing this for the money but to move the lines and explain to the state the real problem”, added Nadège Py.
This collective action is a coordinated legal procedure, thanks to joint individual appeals, without any advance payment for the parents, before the administrative courts.
“Put the pressure on the start of the school year”
These parents argue that their children have sometimes missed more than a hundred hours of lessons, without any replacement. According to reports made to the FCPE, at least 79,000 hours of lessons have been lost in France since the start of the new school year, and more than 3,200 in Paris alone. FCPE Paris notes that there is already a shortage of 200 teachers in the capital in nursery and elementary schools for the next school year.
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Concretely, “parents ask the State for 10 euros per hour of class not replaced for middle school and high school and 50 euros per day for primary school. Added to this is 500 euros for non-pecuniary damage and the reimbursement of any costs, such as the use of private lessons, ”detailed Me Joyce Pitcher, lawyer specializing in mass litigation, responsible for representing the collective.
According to her, to date, “200 files” have been identified. “But the action is only in its infancy and we hope to collect several thousand, by expanding in particular to all of France. The idea is to intervene during the summer to put pressure on the start of the school year, ”insisted the lawyer.
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