The doors of many nursery and elementary schools will remain closed Thursday, January 13, and this will not be linked to Covid-19 contamination. Several primary unions, including the main one, Snuipp-FSU, are calling a strike to protest against the government’s health policy.
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They denounce in particular the protocol put in place for contact cases in the event of contamination of a student: responsible for a large part of the 12 million tests carried out each week in France, this protocol has already been modified twice since its announcement. on the eve of returning from the Christmas holidays, without calming the criticisms of parents and professionals. On the contrary, the many adjustments and the way in which they were announced have fueled anger within the National Education, and weakened the position of Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer. Franceinfo recounts, in four acts, the failed back to school government.
Act 1: in December, classes closed, but no postponement of the resume
The epidemic situation in National Education is already debated before the end of year vacation. The positive cases starting to multiply, the closure of classes to the first positive case, in the primary, is abandoned on November 29. The new protocol already requires a negative test to return to class, an operation repeated in the event of a second case detected. In the third case, the class closes.
“At first, the parents were delighted, but very quickly they were exasperated, because they find themselves testing their children several times and, often, the class does end up closing.“, explains the general secretary of Snuipp-FSU, Guislaine David, on December 17. According to Olivier Flipo, of the SE-Unsa union, “LParents do not understand that it is closing when on TV they have been told that classes are no longer closing “. On the eve of the holidays, there are 3,150 classes closed despite this protocol.
Unions and parents’ associations are calling for the installation of CO2 sensors in school premises and the replacement of sick teachers. But another debate is on the table: a delay in the start of the school year, scheduled for January 3. If Jean-Michel Blanquer answers, on December 16, that“no hypothesis is ruled out”, that of postponing the start of the school year is finally excluded by Jean Castex on December 27, in the name of loyalty to the “line” government to do everything to keep schools open. “At the start of the school year, we will be expanding our surveillance and screening policy in schools”, promises the Prime Minister.
The next day, Jean-Michel Blanquer promises a reinforced protocol at the start of the school year, but causes a first quack. “To return to school, it will not only be necessary to have taken a test once, but at least two, several days apart”, he announces on France Inter, specifying that the time between the two tests is discussed “with the scientific authorities”. But a few hours later, his ministry denied the announcement to AFP, citing a simple “work hypothesis”.
Act 2: a re-entry protocol announced late
Announced without setting a deadline, the new National Education protocol was overdue. It was finally announced by Jean-Michel Blanquer on Sunday January 2, in an interview published at 8:21 p.m. on the website of Parisian, for application a few hours later. A short delay “to be as close as possible to the health reality”, he justifies the next day on LCI. But timing makes people react. “I no longer listen to the media to preserve myself, so I discovered the new protocol on Monday morning. As long as I have nothing on my mailbox, I consider that nothing has changed”, tells franceinfo an elementary school principal testifying to her exhaustion on January 8.
Much ink is also spilled about the choice to make these announcements in a paid media interview. On January 5, a reader questioned Emmanuel Macron on this subject, still in The Parisian : “I am a teacher and I regret that I often find announcements of new protocols in the media rather than first through our hierarchy.” “You are right. I give you the point”, replies the President of the Republic, thus seeming to disavow Jean-Michel Blanquer.
Basically, the protocol in force from January 3 complicates the situation a little: to return to class after a positive case, the students must always present a negative result of a PCR or antigen test, but also perform self-tests two and four. days later. And this in each new case. There is no longer any question of closing classes, even if three or more students are affected.
Act 3: a rush on tests and a first adjustment
In the wake of the end of the year celebrations, the start of the school year sees the number of contaminations and tests carried out breaking records, passing the bar of 2 million tests per day in France. Images of queues of several hours in front of pharmacies and laboratories are multiplying, and it is mainly parents and their children who populate them. “Schoolchildren are too much”, warns Philippe Besset, president of the Federation of Pharmaceutical Unions of France. Some parents fail to get their hands on the free self-tests that are supposed to be provided by pharmacies. And despite the new rules, 9,200 classes are listed as closed three days after the resumption, in particular due to contamination of teachers, a record since spring 2021.
On the evening of January 6, the Ministry of National Education therefore made a first adjustment to the protocol applied for four days: if a new positive case is reported in a class already affected, the students do not have to restart the cycle. of three tests. A reduction of the pressure on the places of screening and on the parents, at the cost of less effectiveness against the contaminations. “This precision of the ministry is not at all logical, because there will be even more holes in the racket”, worries Guislaine David, the general secretary of Snuipp-FSU.
Act 4: a third version of the protocol which does not prevent a strike
Pressure on the government continued to mount in the days that followed. Main union in primary education, Snuipp-FSU calls for a national strike on January 13 to protest against health management: “The school and its staff can no longer keep up with impractical protocols that change from day to day”, wrote the union in a press release on January 7, the day after the last adjustment.
On the 10th, at the end of the weekend, the government revised its copy again. And it is the Prime Minister, Jean Castex, who is in charge of announcing it in a last minute interview with the newspaper of 20 hours of France 2. The pupils will still have to carry out three tests, but all can be self-tests, announces- he does. Parents will only have to produce a single sworn certificate for their child to be admitted to class. And if the positive case is discovered during the day, parents can wait until the end of that day to pick up their child.
However, the reactions are not positive. The Snuipp-FSU believes that the new protocol will “necessarily increase tenfold contamination in schools”, because of the lower efficiency of the self-tests, and falsify the count of contaminations. This protocol also opens the door to false statements by parents. And asks the question of the availability of tests: on France 2, Jean Castex promises that pharmacies will receive 11 million in the week, to give them free to the parents concerned.
The form of this announcement also exposes the Minister of Education to criticism. “After a week of cacophony and shortage, Jean-Michel Blanquer is disavowed directly by his Prime Minister. Does France still have a Minister of National Education?” pretends to wonder the president of the group The Republicans of the National Assembly, Damien Abad. On the left, PS and LFI deputies even call for the resignation of the minister. A sign that the atmosphere is feverish within the government itself, The Parisian affirms that a tense discussion opposed Jean-Michel Blanquer to Olivier Véran, Wednesday, before the Council of Ministers. According to the newspaper’s (anonymous) sources, the Minister of National Education criticized his health counterpart for his lack of support in the face of criticism.
The strike is maintained, and promises to be particularly followed. Snuipp-FSU estimates that 75% of primary school teachers will be absent and half of schools closed. Rarely, the striking unions even received the support of the main association of parents of students, the FCPE, which called not to send students to class. Unlike the teachers’ unions, she is not calling for the return of class closings, but shares the demand to generalize CO2 sensors and FFP2 masks. And call also at “say stop to this health protocol”.