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EDUCATION MINISTRY ESTIMATES 25% OF SCHOOLS (50% IN PARIS) WILL BE AFFECTED TEACHERS across France are striking today over the introduction of a new timetable. The Ministry of Education says

the action will affect 25% of schools nationally, rising to 50% in the capital. Several education unions have called the strike in protest at a new four and a half day teaching week. The

new teaching plan was introduced across roughly one in five schools at the beginning of the school and expected to be rolled out across all schools from the next school year. It was

introduced after parents and teachers complained that the long hours of a four-day timetable, introduced under the Sarkozy government, were leaving children exhausted. Teachers and other

education workers are to protest outside the Hôtel de Ville in Paris from midday, before marching to the Education Ministry. A group of local authorities, principally those held by the

Right, say they will refuse to apply the new timetable next year. They say the government is not providing enough money to fund the changes. A spokesman for the authorities said that the

state’s €50 per pupil funding for the new measures, was nowhere near the €200-250 that it cost. Photo: Chlorophylle fotolia.com