The common trade union front for education called on Tuesday for teachers to stop working on Thursday 8 December, the day a delegation is due to meet the government of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation.
The unions intend to hand cotton swabs to the ministers on this occasion as a symbolic gesture to denounce the fact that, in their eyes, the ministers have remained deaf to their demands for almost a year.
The unions are calling for progress on class size (the maximum number of students per teacher) and reject the proposed reform of teacher and management evaluation.
They also expect more clarity on the future of qualifying education, which is to be reformed following the introduction of the common core curriculum, and denounce the workload linked to the school piloting plans.
Over the past 10 months, teachers’ unions have organised four major protests in Brussels, Mons, Liège and Namur, each time attracting around 10,000 demonstrators, but there have been no satisfactory concessions from the government, they say.
In the run-up to the 8 December day of action, general staff meetings are expected to be organised in the various French-speaking schools in the coming days.
The unions have warned that if no progress is made or if the government does not provide sufficient answers, an action plan will be put in place in early 2023.
