EDUCATION – In an attempt to limit Covid-19 contamination during the holidays, the scientific council recommends a strengthening of barrier gestures in schools this week and a “self-containment” of students, Thursday 17 and Friday 18 December.
2020-12-15T14: 09: 12.331 + 01: 00 – Léa LUCAS
—
After calling for limiting family reunions for the holidays, the scientific council suggested a second track. “The best is to confine yourself preventively”, he recommended this Monday evening.
Children, important vectors of contamination, are not exempt from this prerogative. In addition to reinforcing barrier gestures throughout this last week in schools, they will be allowed to be absent this Thursday and Friday in order to “self-confine”. This last minute decision made many teachers unions jump.
All the info on
Covid-19: France affected by a second wave of magnitude
–
–
An unprecedented degree of precipitation
“We are surprised to learn this a few days before the end of the period. It will be difficult to implement”, confides Guislaine David, spokesperson for the Unitary National Union of Teachers and School Teachers (SNUipp-FSU) to LCI. “If it was necessary to take measures, it was before. We had known for ten days that the contaminations were no longer decreasing.”
“This time, the degree of precipitation is higher than the other late announcements”, agrees Jean-Rémi Girard, president of the National Union of High Schools and Colleges (SNALC), to LCI. “If this decision had been made last week, we would have had time to turn around. It would have been best to announce vacations for everyone on Thursday.”
In theory, parents are supposed to contact schools indicating the absence of their toddlers for reason. “self-containment”. But they will have to catch up with the lessons since the class will still be maintained. “I hope that parents follow the news, because we will not have time to warn them”, alerts the president of SNALC.
Hard choice: health or education?
In addition, the concrete implementation of this measure remains delicate, especially for parents who work face-to-face and will not be able to look after their children. “There will be a breach of equality between the parents”, develops the spokesperson for SNUipp-FSU. “Parents will face a very complicated choice: the health or education of their children. The crisis at the level of a country will depend on individual decisions coming from each family “, adds, startled, Jean-Rémi Girard.
The teachers thus have no other choice but to ensure the educational service until Friday evening. Because even if the number of students will be reduced in the classes, a large number will go to school for lack of care. “It is therefore the teachers who will also find themselves confronted with the possibility of being contaminated and contaminating”, over-t-yl.
In this regard, the late arrival of this news risks considerably limiting the reduction in the number of contaminations. Neither does it guarantee a better recovery in early 2021. “Not only, this ‘à la carte’ school will upset everyone. But in addition, the return to school in January is not anticipated. It’s going to be complicated “, Guislaine David fears.
Read also
- Health protocol reinforced in high schools: “Distance education deepens inequalities”
- Wearing a mask from six years old: how do children experience it?
Following these many concerns, the Ministry of National Education, also taken aback by the Scientific Council on Monday, immediately reacted. “It’s a tolerance, not an encouragement, he emphasizes. No risk does not exist. If the barrier measures are followed, the risk of contracting the virus is very low. ”