“The teachers will not be at ease on Monday when they resume school”, warned on franceinfo Guislaine David, spokesperson for the SNUipp-FSU teachers’ union. Parents either, to listen to certain testimonies in the face of the 5th epidemic wave of Covid-19. The government has decided: the return to school will take place on Monday January 3 and not a week later, as demanded by certain health professionals or political leaders.
The 14 million schoolchildren, college students, high school students and students are therefore expected in class and the school health protocol has undergone some adjustments but no upheaval. However, the surge in contaminations during school holidays, driven by the strong contagiousness of the Omicron variant, raises fears of an epidemic rebound in schools. Franceinfo explains why this start of the school year makes health professionals and teachers fear the worst.
Because a third of teachers could be affected by Covid-19
The extreme contagiousness of the Omicron variant could lead to “disorganization” from France because of an increase in work stoppages, warned the Scientific Council, from December 23. A warning that applies to all sectors of the economy, but also to school. The experts even gave themselves up to an estimate. According to them, a third of teachers “at least” could be affected by Covid-19 by the end of January, so “direct” being positive, or “indirect” being in contact.
How do you run the school if a third of the 800,000 teachers fail? Invited by France Inter on December 28, Jean-Michel Blanquer mentioned, without going into details, solutions to anticipate this situation. “We are deploying resources, particularly among temporary workers and young retirees from National Education. Our objective is to guarantee this pedagogical continuity”, said the Minister of National Education.
These leads leave teachers skeptical, according to the testimonies collected by The world. “Returning to the front lines after 60 years, in the midst of an epidemic, is the opposite of common sense”, explains a retired teacher on a daily basis. “Who will agree to be exposed to the virus for a two-month fixed-term contract?” asks another. Some unions offer other solutions. “To get by, in the absence of a budget extension which seems urgent to us, we could start by appealing to the additional lists of aspiring teachers who narrowly missed success in the competitions”, suggests Guislaine David, from SNUipp-FSU.
Because class closures are in danger of exploding
If the teachers are likely to miss, the closings of classes could also multiply because of the surge of contaminations among children. “Among the teachers, there will be a third who will be affected, or even more, in a direct or indirect way. It will be the same thing for the pupils. Because you will have in each class several children who will be infected or case contact”, for example, warned on BFMTV, the epidemiologist Arnaud Fontanet, member of the Scientific Council.
The primary teachers’ unions demanded – without success – the return to the policy of closing a class from the first positive case, a measure which has not been in force since November 29. Now, it takes three confirmed cases to close a class for seven days. On the eve of the holidays, 3,150 classes were closed in France due to the epidemic, a stable figure according to the ministry.
During the holidays, however, Omicron continued its wild race with levels of contamination never reached. A situation which raises fears of an explosion of cases at school, as in the rest of society. “We are going to resume in exactly the same deplorable sanitary conditions as before the Christmas holidays… And now there is Omicron in addition!” got annoyed with Release Guislaine David. “For her, no doubt, writes the daily, from the start of the school year, there will be clusters in schools. “
Because the protocols applied at school are insufficient, according to health professionals
In a column published on December 25 in the JDD, fifty health professionals challenged the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, and asked for the postponement of the start of the school year. They were not heard. “We expect an unprecedented wave in the coming weeks of care for children with pediatric multisystemic inflammatory syndrome (Pims), as well as sequelae linked to the development, in some cases, of a lasting form of the disease (‘long pediatric covid’) “, they write. “The latest study from the team led by Vittoria Colizza estimates that the virus is circulating more in schools, primary and secondary schools, than in the community at the same time, showing that contacts within schools increase the potential of transmission of Sars-CoV-2 in relation to the community “, they add again.
For these health professionals, the protocols put in place are not sufficient. “Regarding the tests, they lack material. There has still not been an audit of the air quality in the schools, teachers tell us that they still have windows that they cannot open , they don’t have CO2 detectors, air purifiers … We haven’t learned much for months “, deplores on franceinfo Jérôme Marty, president of the French Union for Free Medicine (UFML) and signatory of the forum.
Because social movements are to be feared
Doctors are not the only ones criticizing the measures taken by the government. The education unions agree with them on many points. “While public opinion is focused on the number of classes that are closing or not, we are not debating the endowments of masks, the ventilation of the rooms, the black spot that the canteens constitute… The stake cannot be short. termist, it is not limited to January 3, or even the three weeks to come and which promise to be extremely complicated “, critic Catherine Nave-Bekhti, from SGEN-CFDT, in The world.
Some unions have decided to move up a gear by filing strike notices. The SNES-FSU thus called a strike for this first week of return. “The absence of government announcements for colleges and high schools in the middle of the 5th wave, with a variant that circulates quickly, is irresponsible”, denounces the union.
Yes, the notice was given for the week of the start of the school year, and will be renewed for the entire month of January. https://t.co/dGjQP0z1gK
– SNES-FSU (@SNESFSU) December 30, 2021
The SUD education union in Paris, meanwhile, filed a strike notice for the period from January 3 to March 5.