“We have the impression of playing a board game whose rules have changed 50 times”, denounced this Monday, on franceinfo, Florence Comte, secretary and spokesperson for the Union of School Directors (S2DÉ), herself director of an elementary school in the Var, after the announcement of the new health protocol in schools by the Prime Minister, Jean Castex on Monday evening. Children in the event of contact may only perform self-tests. “We give free rein to the circulation of the virus in schools”, she worries.
franceinfo: What do you think of this relaxation of the health protocol in schools announced by the Prime Minister?
Florence Comte: We feel despised and betrayed. This new protocol is the fiftieth in 22 months. Once again it was announced in the media. We have been deploring this mode of communication for months, but it is not changing.
Concretely, this new protocol will therefore not change anything? Won’t it make your life easier?
Yes, our days are going to be really simplified. However, the virus is allowed to circulate freely in schools. The virus will circulate. Students will be, or will not be, tested by their parents. There is already a shortage of self-tests in pharmacies. Parents are completely lost, completely confused by all these changes and the virus is really going to circulate in the school. Teachers and principals are extremely concerned for the health of students, their families, and their own health as well. We would have liked to go back to the original protocol, which was that when a positive case is declared in a class, the class closes for seven days. It is true that from now on, it will be easier for us and for families, but we let the virus circulate.
Is the strike movement planned for next Thursday promising to be very followed?
It promises to be extremely followed. No director, no teacher in France can say that the protocol is in line with the health situation. No teacher is doing well in their classroom right now. No director does more than manage positive cases. We do not currently have a quality education. We feel like we’re playing a board game whose rules have changed 50 times. It is complicated. It’s complicated for the parents, it’s very complicated for the students and it’s very complicated for us. It is not our mission to be health professionals. Our mission is to teach our students and make them feel good at school. At the moment, I’m afraid this is not the case.