The scientific council had indeed estimated at “at least” a third of the professors who could be affected by the virus by the end of January.
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Teachers are hit hard by the Covid-19 epidemic. Some 7% of them are currently absent from schools, but the peak of absences “should not normally exceed 15%”, assured Wednesday January 5 the Minister of National Education, while the return to school has been since Monday under tension.
“Am I going to deny that January is difficult? Of course not”, recognized Jean-Michel Blanquer, questioned during questions to the government in the Senate. “Are we helpless when it comes to replacement issues? That’s the main topic”, he continued, stressing that the figures put forward by the scientific council at the end of December “speak of 30%” absent, “by adding the cases of patients and the cases of contact”, what “is not at all the same subject”.
The scientific council had in fact estimated at “at least” a third of the professors who could be affected by the virus by the end of January, either by being positive for Covid-19, or “indirectly” being in contact. But the rules of isolation have since been lightened, and teachers in contact “go back to school if they are vaccinated after having done a test”, then specified the Minister of Education.
“We are currently deploying means to go beyond the 9% of replacement means, and indeed go towards 12-15%”, argued Jean-Michel Blanquer before the senators. In an interview with Parisian, Sunday, the minister indicated that the ministry was recruiting “contract workers and contractors”.