Italian and French Teachers fight Education Cuts

Italian students and teachers protesting against school cuts last autumn

Huge cuts in the teacher workforce are being fought in France and Italy as the new term begins

In Italy 42,000 teaching jobs are being lost and in France 13,500 as the neo-liberal governments in both countries seek to slash education spending to help them to deal with the economic crisis. In Italy the Berlusconi government is cutting 8 billion euros over three years from the education budget. The leader of the opposition party Dario Franceschini said: “The state is carrying out the biggest mass redundancy plan in Italian history in the sector that needs investment the most, in the education of our children.” Every year thousands of temporary teachers have to re-apply for a job and they are worse paid than their permanent colleagues. It is these teachers who are particulalry badly affected by the cuts. As a result in many major towns in Italy there have been occupations by teachers of education offices, rooftop protests and rallies.

Meanwhile in France teachers’ leaders are accusing the government of trying to distract the public from the serious attacks on education spending by whipping up a scare among parents about the H1N1 virus. These tactics are evidently not working however since in a poll 79% of the French public believe the spending cuts will have a ’mostly negative’ on primary education. Secondary school teachers are threatening a strike before half term because of the cuts and because of changes to the curriculum

With governments all over Europe planning massive education cuts it is safe to predict that there will be a wave of teacher’s actions all over the continent this autumn.