Sarcelles: anger and determination to support those accompanying disabled students

« I’m ashamed of our education system », Launches a mother. ” We are abandoned “. Hand in hand, teachers and parents of students came to support the mobilization and the call to strike launched by an inter-union (CGT education, FNEC-FP-FO, FSU, SNALC, SNCL-FAEN, SUD education) for demand the enhancement of the role and the salary of accompanying persons of students with disabilities (AESH).

« I have been AESH for two and a half years and I can tell you that it is not easy, testifies Natacha of the school group Jean Mermoz de Sarcelles. There is no recognition, we are paid around 790 euros for 24 hours a week. I want because I have three children that I raise alone. But if an opportunity presents itself I will give up. And yet, it is fascinating to be able to help a child to go to school despite his disability.. »

These students have a wide variety of disabilities ranging from cognitive or mental disorders to developmental, motor or sensory disorders, or even a combination of impairments. Marie, 62, says she has been lucky enough to take care of the same 11-year-old child for three years, attending CM1 and who suffers from autism: ” Now we know each other well with the child and the family. You have to know how to manage because he is strong. »

She has been assuming this responsibility for almost five years. However, she claims to have started without training, almost at short notice, after having been a time secretary in the private sector, then assistant of school life (AVS). Today, to supplement her salary from AESH, she also works as a facilitator and does tutoring.

These already difficult working conditions seem to have deteriorated with the establishment of inclusive localized support poles (PIAL). Established in 2020, the new organization aims to match the support resources with the needs identified by the teaching and educational team. Perverse effect, the system induces the need for a greater flexibility of the AESH which can be brought to cover a larger geographical area, to follow more pupils and to adapt accordingly to the functioning of the different teaching teams.

Decrease in general hourly allocations

Beyond the AESH, the joint mobilization of education staff from Garges, Sarcelles and Villiers-le-Bel has also sought to point the finger at the reduction in the overall hourly allocation (DHG) for the start of the September 2021 school year, c ‘ that is to say the number of hours which will be allocated to each establishment by the academic direction, in order to ensure all the lessons (compulsory and optional) during the week.

« Where is the equal opportunity that the minister talks about? “Asks Agnès, mother of two children attending Henri Matisse college and Simone de Beauvoir high school in Garges-lès-Gonesses. In the colleges of this town, the DHG will go from 3,462 in 2020-2021 to 3,300 in 2021-2022 for around 2,500 students according to data from the rectorate. With Fatima, whose two children are in the same college, and other parents, they have already been received by the rectorate. For what results? ” A few more but additional hours. Crumbs. We have what we want, these shift hours in order to be able to maintain class sizes at suitable levels, maintain individual options and support. But with what we have been presented, a post of professor of French and one of mathematics will have to be abolished at the Henri Matisse college. It will no longer be possible to make half groups and in middle school the classes will reach 30 students. »

This observation is shared by the teachers of the Henri Matisse college, including Caroline, an English teacher who is preparing to have to sacrifice four hours of the “European English” option in 3.^th et en 4^th « because with regard to the needs of the students, we think that priority should be given to French and mathematics. »All this in a degraded social context, attested by the social positioning index (IPS) attributed by the national education to the establishments of Garges-lès-Gonesses (77.3) Sarcelles (75) and Villiers-le-Bel ( 72.1), to be compared with the IPS of 114.7 of the Maurice Ravel high school-college in the 20^th. In fact, ” it is education that we abandon, in particular in our neighborhoods called priority areas “, Ton Gwen, teacher at Jean-Jaurès primary school in Sarcelles.

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