(NEW YORK) — A nationwide strike took place in schools across France on Thursday as teachers and other school staff demonstrated against the government’s management of COVID-19 protocols in schools.

Teachers, other school staff and parents in the country have been complaining for months, saying the health protocols in schools are confusing and continually changing. The government changed the rules twice for schools in the past week.

They argued that they are facing the crisis with inapplicable measures, a growing work overload, teachers not being replaced when sick, no additional resources or staff to alleviate the issues and a lack of transparency from the education minister.

Teachers unions had called for a walkout to denounce the “indescribable mess” in schools as COVID-19 cases have surged and pharmacies have reported shortages of self-test kits since the beginning of the year.

The primary school teachers’ union, SNUipp-FSU, announced an estimated 75% participation rate among their ranks, and the secondary school union, SNES-FSU, said 62% mobilized. However, the Ministry of National Education claimed that 38.5% of primary school teachers and 23.7% of secondary school teachers participated.

“The teachers express their anger at this minister who does not hear them, who does not listen to what’s going on in the field, who does not listen to the distress present in schools and to all the possible dysfunctions, and above all a minister who addresses the press first before addressing the students,” a SNUipp-FSU representative told ABC News. “And so, the teachers are very angry.”

The leading parent association, the FCPE, also joined the movement in support of the teachers, and earlier this week called for a “white day” in schools, urging parents to keep their children at home Thursday.

FCPE co-president Nageate Belahcen said while the COVID-19 protocols look “pretty” on paper, there is “no pedagogical continuity.”

“Nothing is put in place because the means are not there, and there are no substitute teachers,” Belahcen told ABC News, adding that she is also concerned about exams occurring this year. “All this means that the parents are still very, very worried for the future of their children, for the well-being of their children, and above all, we cannot take this situation any longer.”

For weeks now, education professionals have been asking Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer for more staff and reinforced measures — including FFP2 masks for the teachers, CO2 sensors and air purifiers for classrooms — to fight against the growing cases of COVID-19.

Blanquer has come under fire multiple times since the beginning of the pandemic due to concerns over the way he has handled the COVID-19 crisis.

“When will you present your resignation, Mr. Minister?” Sylvie Tolmont, a national assembly deputy from Sarthe, asked Tuesday during a government questioning session. This isn’t the first time his resignation has been asked for since he took office in 2017.

In a bid to appease the demonstrators, Prime Minister Jean Castex met with the unions Thursday evening, along with the health and education ministers.

After a discussion that lasted three hours, Blanquer announced he had agreed to some of the unions’ requests, including the distribution of 5 million FFP2 masks to schools, the recruitment of 3,300 contractual substitute teachers and additional non-teaching and administrative staff.

There has been a similar dispute over health and safety in schools in the United States. After five days of canceled classes, the Chicago Teachers Union voted, with 56% in favor, to approve a COVID-19 agreement with Chicago Public Schools that included expanded testing, masks and a plan to shut down schools during outbreaks.

Thursday’s strike was a “historic mobilization” for France, according to SNUipp-FSU, considering the number of strikers, the unity between teachers’ unions and the fact that the FCPE participated as well.

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(GIZA, Egypt) — Sharm El-Sheikh — Egypt said the best way to mark the centenary of Tutankhamun tomb’s discovery would be inaugurating a new state-of-the-art museum later this year to house the ancient boy king’s vast treasures.

The Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), a mega project on the outskirts of the capital that Egypt said would be the biggest museum in the world dedicated to a single civilization, nears completion as the country applies the finishing touches ahead of its opening.

“If the coronavirus-related conditions are stable, then the (museum’s) opening would be in the second half of the year,” Egypt’s antiquities and tourism minister Khaled el-Anany told ABC News on the sidelines of the World Youth Forum, an annual international youth conference that the country hosts in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh.

“We will be ready by the middle of this year … but we want to make sure that our guests can arrive in large numbers. We aim to invite presidents and kings from all over the world,” el-Anany said.

The nearly 480,000 square meter museum, which overlooks the famed Giza Pyramids, will hold more than 100,000 artifacts. About 5,000 belong to Tutankhamun, the famous 18th dynasty ruler who died at the age of 19 after a 10-year reign.

The Egyptian Museum, a 120-year-old red storied structure built in Cairo’s central Tahrir square, housed less than 3,000 of those objects, including Tutankhamun’s golden burial mask. Other artifacts were kept in the museum’s storerooms.

However, a century after British archeologist Howard Carter discovered those treasures in Luxor’s Valley of the Kings in 1922, they will be displayed in full for the first time when the Grand Egyptian Museum opens.

“The GEM is distinguished by its location, architecture and the full collection of Tutankhamun,” el-Anany added.

“We are celebrating the 200-year anniversary of Egyptology and 100-year anniversary of Tutankhamun tomb’s discovery in many parts of the world through Egyptian institutions. However, I believe that the best celebration of Tutankhamun would be opening the Grand Egyptian Museum,” he said.

String of discoveries

Egypt made a string of discoveries over the past few years as it seeks to lure back tourists following the adverse effects of the political turmoil that followed the 2011 revolution and 2013 mass protests along with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The highlight of 2021, according to el-Anany, was the unearthing of a 3,000-year-old city in the southern province of Luxor, which Egypt had termed the “Lost Golden City.” It dates back to the 18th-dynasty of King Amenhotep III, who ruled Egypt from 1391 till 1353 B.C.

Egypt also held two lavish ceremonies to transfer 22 mummies from the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir to a newly-inaugurated museum in the old Islamic city of Fustat in a “royal procession” and to celebrate the opening of a 3,000-year-old sphinx-filled avenue in Luxor.

“The numbers of tourists were increasing last year until December when the new coronavirus variant emerged … we are in the recovery phase, but we hope there would be no more variants,” El-Anany said.

El-Anany told ABC News that Egypt plans to announce another significant discovery in February or March, which he said will “capture the world’s attention.” However, he refused to disclose further details.

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