radiofranceInternationale
2008-10-19 15:58 TU
Thousands of teachers, students and parents demonstrated in Paris today, demanding that the government scrap its plans to do away with 13,500 teachers' posts in 2009 and demanding more finance for education. The National Assembly is due to discuss the 2009 education budget on 4 November.
The organisers claim 80,000 people turned out to oppose the cuts, which follow the scrapping of 19,700 jobs in 2007 and 2008.
The government claims that the posts are no longer necessary because of demographic changes.
Higher Education Minister Valérie Pécresse told Europe 1 radio that the protest is "completely out of touch with the real situation in education, which is now the government's priority of priorities".
But 47 organisations, including teachers' and students' unions and parents' associations, do not agree. They want more investment in education and insist that the current financial crisis increases the need for it to "remain a prioirity'.
Socialist Party leaders Martine Aubry, Bertrand Delanoë and François Hollande joined the march.
"It's an emergency," Delanoë told reporters. "Education is in danger."
http://www.rfi.fr/actuen/articles/106/article_1905.asp
2008-10-19 15:58 TU
Thousands of teachers, students and parents demonstrated in Paris today, demanding that the government scrap its plans to do away with 13,500 teachers' posts in 2009 and demanding more finance for education. The National Assembly is due to discuss the 2009 education budget on 4 November.
The organisers claim 80,000 people turned out to oppose the cuts, which follow the scrapping of 19,700 jobs in 2007 and 2008.
The government claims that the posts are no longer necessary because of demographic changes.
Higher Education Minister Valérie Pécresse told Europe 1 radio that the protest is "completely out of touch with the real situation in education, which is now the government's priority of priorities".
But 47 organisations, including teachers' and students' unions and parents' associations, do not agree. They want more investment in education and insist that the current financial crisis increases the need for it to "remain a prioirity'.
Socialist Party leaders Martine Aubry, Bertrand Delanoë and François Hollande joined the march.
"It's an emergency," Delanoë told reporters. "Education is in danger."
http://www.rfi.fr/actuen/articles/106/article_1905.asp
