Welcoming the children of caregivers whatever happens in schools, despite class closures linked to Covid-19, is “extremely complicated”, criticized on franceinfo Tuesday, January 4 Olivier Flipo, director of a primary school in Cergy (Val-d’Oise) and delegate of the SE-Unsa of the department, while the government announced that the children of caregivers will continue to be welcomed in the event of their classes being closed due to contamination by Covid-19.
“It’s not simple”, underlined Olivier Flipo, because he “do not mix the children”. He denounces “the system gets by” what teachers must put in place to implement government announcements.
franceinfo: Do you have the means to accommodate the children of caregivers?
Olivier Flipo: We have a problem because we must not stir and mix the children. Unless you have additional staff to look after these children specifically, it is therefore not easy to be able to receive them in good conditions. You also need the caregivers to play the game because sometimes you have a parent who is a caregiver who actually has to go to work and another who can telecommute. And finally, we are asked to keep the child. So everyone has to play the game. We understand this need well, but it is not that simple. This is yet another additional task for school principals.
Were you aware of this government announcement?
Personally, I learned about it from the media. We often get the information from them. We are starting to get used to this difficulty. If you want to know what you’re doing on Monday morning, you have to listen to your channels on Sunday evening.
How do you organize yourself in your school?
It is extremely complicated for several reasons. In my school – and I am not the most to be pitied – I have a closed class because there is a teacher absent, not because of the Covid-19 but for health reasons. This means that 26 children must stay at home since, in such cases, we do administrative class closures because there are no substitutes, which we never talk about. This is the first difficulty. In addition, I had 40 children on Monday who were not there, mostly for reasons of Covid-19. This makes 66 children absent in total. It is therefore very complicated for fellow teachers to set up lessons when, in a class, you have only ten children.
Is the situation complicated?
It’s complicated for everyone. We are a little bit in the foolproof system. The minister announces things and then, on the ground, we do what we can. We create our own documents. We received the recent document that was sent to us around the new isolation rules from January 3, but we had to modify it to communicate it to parents in such a way that it is much clearer, by removing everything that does not concern them. For the management of contact cases and sworn statements in the event of contact, we have made our documents so that they are unique for all students.
Is one of the solutions to be able to take the tests at school?
We carried out the test in the Val-d’Oise department, which was the pilot department, and we saw the resulting fiasco, that is to say, laboratories completely overwhelmed that did not travel, parents which received results but others did not … Finally, things did not follow and we no longer close the classes from three cases. It is said that these are local decisions depending on the situation. At National Education now, it’s a bit fashionable. When there is a problem, the problem is eliminated. Closing a class with three cases is problematic so we no longer close the classes when there are three cases. We simply wait for the instructions and, above all, we make very important points on the return of the children with PCR, antigenic or other tests, then the certificates on the honor that we must also point, which is not really not easy.
How long do you imagine holding out like this?
The teachers recharged the batteries during the holidays and arrived with the flower of the gun. What is clear is that the flower will quickly wilt. Honestly – and I will only take the case of the principals – it is appalling. Most school principals are in charge of the classroom. They find themselves in situations where they cannot do their job properly, neither as a principal nor as a teacher. We have neither secretariat nor guardian.