Reassure worried parents, try to catch up with dropouts … Teachers and school directors tell franceinfo how they see recovery after two months of confinement.
Do not tell “back to school”say “reprise”. Thousands of primary school students were reunited with teachers and classmates on Tuesday, but for the majority of them, recovery is scheduled for Thursday, May 14, after two months of confinement and virtual class. But not all, because due to the health protocol established by the Ministry of National Education to prevent the spread of coronavirus in schools, only a small group of students, 15 per class in elementary school, will be able to pass through the doors of their establishment. Nearly 86% of schools in the country have reopened this week. “Over 1.5 million children” are concerned, assured the Minister of National Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, in the Sunday newspaper (paid item).
>> Find the latest information on deconfinement in our live
In its deconfinement plan, the ministry listed the priority pupils : those of the pivotal classes (large kindergarten, CP and CM2 section), children with disabilities, pupils “dropouts or at risk of dropping out” and finally the children “personnel essential to the management of the health crisis and to the continuity of the life of the nation “, such as caregivers or teachers. Some of the approximately 50,500 establishments in the territory have followed these criteria, others have dispensed with them. A SNUipp-FSU union investigation conducted with almost 10,000 schools, however, reveals that the recommendations of the ministry were rather followed. The large section, the CP and CM2 bring together more than 55% of the children who return to class.
Of the 90 students she will see on Thursday, Juliette *, director of elementary school in Ile-de-France, notes that most are in CP and CM2. “The parents wanted to put them back in class, does she certify, they are worried about learning to read or entering college. “
In Paris, the school of Clément *, professor in CM1, made the choice “to bring back to school first and foremost lost children, those from extremely disadvantaged social backgrounds”. “There was an urgent need to take them back to class, because some are in very worrying situations”, he adds. He will thus find three of his students as of Thursday. To ensure the best reception, the establishment has also opted for a small committee. “We didn’t want to fully open the floodgates and end up with 12 children per class”. Thus, he advised parents with whom he had regular contact, or who could provide classes remotely, to wait. “If the first days go well, we will bring these children back”, he specifies.
Fear of contamination prevents some parents from putting their children back in school. Others need to be reassured. “The parents bombarded me with questions that I was not necessarily able to answer”, regrets Aurélie, primary school teacher in the Hauts-de-Seine. She was asked about Kawasaki disease, which has affected relatively few children in France in recent weeks, but worried many parents. “It was quite epic, I had to reassure them about something I did not control”, she says. Three of the 13 students in his class will finally be present, because the parents no longer had the opportunity to babysit. “Many others have told me that they will hand over their children once they have seen that everything is going well and that the health protocol can be respected”, adds the teacher.
In Bourg-sur-Gironde (Gironde), 45 kilometers from Bordeaux, the elementary school will accommodate 11 students. “It’s a big challenge”, estimates Fanny, director of the nursery school who prepared this resumption with the director of the elementary school. “We really wanted the children to come back, but I cannot control the fear of the epidemic in everyone, nor the will of the parents to put their children back in school”, she explains.
If the school reopens, it is because the health protocol can be respected. We will have to show that it is going well.at franceinfo
Should we really try to convince parents? “It is not our role, says Charlotte *, I wouldn’t want anyone to say I forced my hand. ” This teacher from Haute-Savoie did not have to do this for the 5 students of her CP class who return to school. “There are two children of teachers, one whose parents have to return to work and two others who were in great difficulty”, she explains.
Of the 186 students at her school in Seine-Saint-Denis, Odette * is waiting “a little less than thirty”. “All classes in my school are affected, assures the director, we didn’t want to sort the students. ““In most cases, both parents had to return to work”, she describes. Odile did not have to choose: many other parents feared putting their children at risk by putting them in school.
The opening of the schools also obeyed a desire to catch up with the students lost since confinement. At Sunday newspaper, Jean-Michel Blanquer assured that there remained 4% of these “dropouts”, despite the efforts made. “The teachers have developed a lot of creativity to successfully reach the students”, says Florence Rizzo, co-founder and co-director of the SynLab association, involved in education. Some went “where the students were, sometimes even on video game platforms”, she assures. According to a survey carried out by the association, at the end of April, with a thousand primary and secondary teachers, 20% of the pupils seemed “disengaged from their education since the start of confinement”. This rate climbed to 30% in the priority education network (REP).
The teachers interviewed by Franceinfo have seen some of these students come back with pleasure and sometimes a little surprise. “I am happy to see a student who was very far from school and from whom I had had little feedback since the end of the holidays”, rejoices Aurélie. Clément welcomes the reappearance of two students “who had given no sign of life for two months”. “I even wondered if we were going to see them again, but my director succeeded in reaching the father who agreed to let his two children resume school”, he welcomes.
Clothilde *, school director in the Jura, had identified 10 to 20 pupils for whom “the link was still maintained, but the feedback from the work was very disparate”. For these families “on the defensive”, it took “to persuade”, “reassure with photos or videos”. Finally, two or three students find their way back to their school. “VSe are not necessarily dropouts who do not return, we have children of caregivers who stay at home for example “, observes the one who will have about thirty students, out of a total of 108, on resumption.
In her establishment in Seine-Saint-Denis, Odette observes that “parents of dropouts do not particularly want to put children back in school”. In particular, it identified 10 pupils, out of 185, for whom it had no news, despite numerous requests.
These people will not return, either because their families still do not give news, or because they are panicked by the virus.at franceinfo
She cites as an example the mother of a student with health problems and does not want to take any risks, or a family in which both parents were affected by Covid-19. “We called these families to hand over their children, but fear predominates in their homes.” In this department, “many families are in survival”, adds Odette. In these conditions, it may happen that schooling passes after the problems of access to food or care.
The question now is what education awaits children who return to class. “The school in May will not be a daycare, because we keep the framework of the levels”, proclaimed Jean-Michel Blanquer. “Nor will it be the school that students usually know”, tempers Odette. The health protocol and its strict measures disrupt everyday life.
In Delphine’s establishment, due to the turnover of teachers between groups of students, ensuring pedagogical continuity will be complicated. “The students will carry out the work sent during the virtual classes, she assures, I will not go so far as to say that it will be daycare, but hey … ” Teachers will also find out how students are doing after two months of confinement. “What psychological state will they be in?” wonders Clothilde. “We must first welcome them, explain and inform them, before reactivating knowledge.”
We will have to re-acclimatize them to school, reassure them about the epidemic and play down this period of anxiety.at franceinfo
The question of knowledge will be addressed in a second step. “The new concepts will not be studied to avoid creating inequalities, adds Juliette, teachers will do small assessments to gauge the level of each student and then there will be reviews. “ For her, this period will above all serve as a test to best prepare for the start of the September school year. Before projecting into this “real comeback”, Fanny thinks of June. “We hope to have more children in class within 15 days, that will mean that we have regained the confidence of the families”, she concludes.
* First names followed by an asterisk have been changed at the request of witnesses.
