New testing rules were announced on the eve of the return from Christmas holidays and have been changed twice since.
“We had reached such a level of exasperation, fatigue, and anger that we had no other option than to stage a strike to send a strong message to the government,” said Elisabeth Allain-Moreno, national secretary of the SE-UNSA teachers union.
Mr Macron has prided himself on keeping French schools open more than any other country in the world, this week saying: “I fundamentally believe the choice that we made to keep schools open is the right choice.”
But a huge surge in the highly contagious omicron variant has sparked chaos in schools since the start of the year, with 10,000 classes closed because of infections among pupils and staff. Daily new infections have topped 360,000 of late.
Queues have snaked outside pharmacies since January 1 as parents and children try to keep up with testing requirements in the case of a positive case in a class.
France’s prime minister, Jean Castex, finally relaxed the rules this week, saying that a series of home tests could now be used to determine whether a student can return to school. Children over the age of six must wear masks in French schools.
“I know it’s tough, but a strike does not solve problems. One does not strike against a virus,” said Mr Blanquer.
But in a rare show of unity, some 11 unions issued a joint statement saying: ”The exhaustion and exasperation of the entire educational community have reached an unprecedented level.”
“The responsibility of the minister and the government in this chaotic situation is total because of incessant changes of footing, unworkable protocols and the lack of appropriate tools to guarantee (schools) can function properly.”
The strike has been seized upon by Mr Macron’s rivals ahead of April presidential elections.
Damien Abad, education advisor to conservative candidate Valérie Pécresse of the Republicans party and Mr Macron’s most dangerous presidential rival, said the strike was “against Mr Blanquer and this government and their Kafkaesque vision of health protocols.”
Ms Pécresse had called for on government to defer the start of the January term to allow schools to prepare and to slow transmission rates.
Manuel Bompard, spokesman for Leftist candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, said the strike relayed “a huge exasperation in the teaching world” against the government’s handling of the health crisis.
Brice Teinturier, political scientist at the Ipsos polling institute, said the stakes were high for Mr Macron.
“Until now, the French have considered the government and President Macron to have handled the crisis correctly”,” he told AFP. But if chaos continued in schools, “that balance risks being broken”.
Adelaïde Zulfikarpasic of BVA Opinion said that France’s mainly Left-wing teachers were a key electorate for the centrist Mr Macron, who is seen as having moved Right during his five-year term.
“The rump of his voters came from the Left in 2017”, she said, adding that they may be reluctant to back him this time.
While all polls currently see Mr Macron breezing into the second round of presidential elections, one on Wednesday for the first time placed him neck and neck with Ms Pécresse should she reach the runoff.
The conservative candidate is currently vying for a place in the runoff with far-Right runner Marine Le Pen while her nationalist rival Eric Zemmour is in fourth place.
