* Teachers "exasperated" with COVID strategy
* One-day strike aimed at pushing government to change tack
* Government stands by policy to keep classes open (Adds protest rallies, quotes)
By Antony Paone and Eric Gaillard
PARIS, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of French teachers angry with the government's COVID-19 rules walked off the job on Thursday and took to the streets to demand better protection for pupils and staff against infection.
Teachers https://www.reuters.com/world/french-schools-overwhelmed-by-covid-19-contact-tracing-2022-01-07, parents and school directors have struggled to deal with the pandemic and the many twist and turns on COVID rules at school. New testing requirements announced on the eve of the return from Christmas holidays and changed https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/france-eases-covid-protocols-schools-amid-omicron-surge-pm-2022-01-10 twice since coalesced the anger.
"We had reached such a level of exasperation, tiredness, and anger that we didn't have any other option but to organise a strike to send a strong message to the government," said Elisabeth Allain-Moreno, national secretary of the SE-UNSA teachers union.
The exasperation was felt in protest rallies across France, at which many called for the resignation of Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer.
"The (health) protocol mutates faster than the virus," one poster read at a rally in the southern city of Nice.
A government source said Blanquer was unlikely to lose his job three months before the presidential election. Prime Minister Jean Castex will, however, meet teachers' representatives later on Thursday, his office said.
Several left-wing candidates in April's presidential election, including Socialist Anne Hidalgo, whose platform includes doubling teachers' salaries, and hard-left Jean-Luc Melenchon, took part in the Paris protest.
'FED UP'
Some schools were closed on Thursday because of the strike, others were open only for children of health workers while a number operated normally.
Unions said large numbers of teachers - including about 75% in primary schools and 62% in high schools - joined the one-day strike. The Education Ministry's figures were much lower, 38.5% in primary schools, and just under 24% in high schools.
A joint statement https://www.cgteduc.fr/index.php/actualit-mainmenu-352/communiqus-mainmenu-444/3297-en-greve-et-dans-l-action-jeudi-13-janvier-face-a-la-crise-sanitaire-respecter-les-personnels-donner-a-l-ecole-les-moyens-de-fonctionner by 11 unions blamed the government for what it called a "chaotic situation" due to "incessant changes of footing, unworkable protocols and the lack of appropriate tools to guarantee (schools) can function properly".
The government stood by its policy to keep classes open and requiring all pupils in contact with an infected person to get tested three times. Some degree of complication is the price to pay to keep schools open, it said.
"I know it's tough, but a strike does not solve problems. One does not strike against a virus," Blanquer told BFM TV.
Infections have surged https://www.reuters.com/world/french-schools-overwhelmed-by-covid-19-contact-tracing-2022-01-07 in schools as France has set records with close to 370,000 new daily cases https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/france-will-register-tuesday-record-350000-daily-new-covid-infections-minister-2022-01-11, sending families scrambling to get their children tested.
"My children and I, we're fed up with getting tested every other day," said Corinne Courvoisier, the mother of seven-year old twins, who had joined the protest rally in Nice.
"We started testing Nelson and Elsa on Friday because there was a suspicion of a positive COVID-19 test in Nelson's class, so Friday, then Sunday, then Tuesday, and then yesterday we were sent a letter from the director that there was another suspected case in Elsa's class ... We're never seeing the end of it." (Reporting by Lea Guedj, Antony Paone, Elizabeth Pineau in Paris, Eric Gaillard in Nice; Writing by Ingrid Melander; editing by John Stonestreet, Angus MacSwan and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
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