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France: Schoolteachers walk out over ‘divisive’ shake-up

FRENCH teachers walked out yesterday over proposed changes to the education system they consider divisive.

Ministers mooted the changes after a 2012 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development report rated the French education system one of the most unequal in the world, with huge gaps between rich and poor.

The Socialist Party government wants to add multidisciplinary classes and cut a bilingual programme.

Teachers say the plan will pit instructors against each other in the multidisciplinary courses, creating discord that will hurt students.

“It will create a battle between teachers,” teacher Jean-Remi Girard told France Television.

Unions said more than half of teachers went on strike.

In an open letter to Education Minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, teachers said that the changes “will not be pedagogical, no matter what their promoters say, but bureaucratic.”

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