With the return to “normal” promised on Monday in schools, the page of the remote school turns at the time of Covid-19. Despite a general alarming level of anxiety, "the period had very positive effects on the relationship with parents," say researchers Georges Fotinos and José Mario Horenstein, who have just surveyed the morale of school principals. Their survey (carried out at the request of the mutualist bank of teachers and the public service Casden, with the support of the city of Paris), which we reveal, was conducted from May 28 to June 11 among all schools in Paris. Almost half (46.5%) responded.
How are the principals doing?
JOSÉ MARIO HORENSTEIN. Wrong, as you would expect after a pandemic. Half of the respondents have a significant level of clinical anxiety, including 27.2% severe. And a quarter have depressive symptoms. These are levels comparable to those observed in caregivers in China and Italy, on the same questionnaire. However, fear of the virus as such (coronaphobia) concerns only 8% of Parisian directors.
What is the cause of their stress, then?
JMH This pandemic, and especially the obligation to face a situation that we do not control, has been added to a pre-existing malaise. In 2018, we already noted 39.6% of directors in burnout.
GEORGES FOTINOS. Today we risk seeing the number of sick leave increase fairly quickly, for health problems, depression ... With these psychological weaknesses, it is also the stability of the school that is at stake.
Could the “prof bashing”, whose teachers have complained in recent weeks, further blacken the morale of the directors?
GF I believe that it is an epiphenomenon which does not reflect the reality lived with the daily newspaper. Our study shows that, in Paris, more than one director in two judges that his relations with parents have improved, it is very important. For two and a half months, the school was really at home and the teacher, who in some circles is an abstract being, materialized.
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So there have been positive effects to this crisis for the school?
GF Absolutely. The directors have found a freedom of action they no longer had. They innovated, without the sword of Damocles of the hierarchy above them. We also witnessed, it seems to me, the reconciliation of parents with the school. Four years ago, six out of ten principals identified several serious disputes a year with parents. The same proportion said that parents cannot help children at home and more than 50% of parents believe that teachers do not take steps to communicate with them.
Is it important for parents and teachers to get along?
GF International studies show it: from the moment when school is a common project between the institution and families, behavior and learning in the classroom are better. But it is the fruit of a whole policy, especially among disadvantaged audiences.
What should be done ?
GF Ensure that parents are closely involved in the construction of the school project. It is something other than simply authorizing parents to accompany school outings, a role to which they have often been confined often so far.
