This Monday, National Education puts online on the website of the ministry the file detailing the “health protocol” that should be respected in schools that will reopen their doors and welcome students again from Tuesday, May 12. The instructions are numerous and promise to be very difficult to enforce. We will detail them for you.
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Before the students return
First of all, for schools to reopen, schools will need to ensure that the classrooms have been cleaned according to protocol. For rooms that have not been used for more than five days, a “classic” cleaning will suffice. For the others, however, cleaning should be done with disinfectants effective against Covid-19.
Some establishments also received sick people or homeless people during the confinement period. They must contact National Education to find out in detail the cleaning protocol that should be followed before classes reopen.
When the students return, cleaning will be a very important element in respecting the health protocol supposed to prevent the spread of the virus. It is recommended to follow a “daily” disinfection of the premises, and in particular the classrooms (tables, chairs, floors) using the recommended products. And several times a day, the teaching materials will also have to be disinfected, like the toilets and all the “contact points” (door handles, stair railings, railings …).
Naturally and as already mentioned, a social distancing must be respected within the establishment, and in particular in the classrooms, where the pupils’ tables and the teacher’s desk must be separated by at least one meter. Insofar as this restriction proves difficult or even impossible to apply in the majority of schools while retaining a full number of pupils, the reception will have to be in small groups. Compliance with health regulations therefore leads all schools to make the choice to welcome students over the course of the week. No instructions on the procedure to follow are specified on this point in the document, except that “the reception capacity” must be “determined in order to respect the sanitary measures to be applied”.
This distance of one meter between each pupil must therefore be respected everywhere in the school: at the entrance to the school for example, where arrivals could also be done in a staggered manner during the morning according to the classes to avoid a crowd. This will also be the case for recess, where the groups will not be mixed, and games during which we avoid avoided items. In the toilets, the recommendations even go so far as to invite to condemn one urinal out of two if the distance of one meter between two urinals is not respected.
When practicing sporting activities too, all contact sports or in which objects such as balls are exchanged will be prohibited, and teachers will have to opt for activities where social distancing can be respected (running … ).
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Always clean hands
School staff will have to be particularly vigilant on this point: respect for the very meticulous handwashing instructions. Students must wash their hands upon arrival at school in the morning, before each return to class, before and after lunch, before and after going to the bathroom, after sneezing, coughing, or blowing their nose, after having handled “potentially contaminated” objects and before returning home. Hand washing with soap and water is recommended, but can be replaced by washing with hydroalcoholic gel in the event of restricted access to water points or if the hands are not “visibly” dirty. As for wiping / drying hands, it will be done in the open air or using disposable towels.
According to this document and contrary to the first elements mentioned, it will not be formally prohibited to have students eat in the canteen, if the establishment is able to enforce all the health instructions mentioned until then.
If this is not the case, the “cold” meal in the classroom prepared beforehand by the parents must be chosen, and take place according to the same protocol as the rest of the day.
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