The porch, a wave of concrete frozen between the sidewalk and the gray sky, has not seen many people pass for ten days - well before the government announcements on Thursday, decreeing the closure of all French schools from March 16. Inside the Marie-Curie high school in Nogent-sur-Oise, located in the middle of the Creil basin cluster (Oise) affected by the spread of Covid-19, there is silence on 8 hectares. The refectory is empty, the courtyard deserted, the 200 classrooms abandoned. And yet, school life is busier than ever: the six daycare centers and all of the school's educational assistants, the largest in the department, have been called in urgently to… hunt down the virtual truancy. Because for ten days that the distance courses have been set up, at the start of the winter holidays, the approximately 3000 pupils and teachers are requested to continue teaching and learning as normally as possible.
In preparatory classes, no problem of motivation: the young people are eager to come back, they who see their chances of success diminish over the days in the demanding engineering school competitions, scheduled for May. For these higher education students, not concerned by the bans from kindergarten to bac, Alain Procar wanted to reopen the doors this Thursday, "by providing the necessary hygiene kits so that they can wash their hands very regularly" . This will not ultimately be the case.
Students not always very "pros"
In the classes of the general high school, about 30 pupils out of 35 connect from their home and open the lessons sent by the teachers, according to the estimate of the high school. "I find them rather serious," says Laurie Lavgez, professor of history and geography. But on the vocational high school side, absenteeism is close to 50%. “We are going to call one by one all those who do not respond to emails: before falling on them with shortened arms, we must make a distinction between those who face technical or social difficulties, and those who simply dry "Explains the head of the school, who admits that he has never been so present in his school as since it was closed.
We must respond to the parents' messages, which are piling up by the dozen on the high school intranet, cancel all of the school trips and outings, check that the Terminals have thought about fulfilling their wishes in Parcoursup - registrations on the platform post-bac orientation are in full swing this week. In the midst of a high school reform, second and first graders, asked to choose their specialties for next year, also need support. The high school must finally face less expected challenges, such as that of selling 800 chicken cutlets and hundreds of useless Flamby, which are waiting for their expiration in the refrigerators of the canteen, closed. The school donated them to charities.
History teacher tests "the inverted class"
In the office of the assistant principals, voices are heard: since Monday, the class councils of the second quarter have been held by videoconference. "The teachers consult together before to prepare their assessments, there is less speaking but also less digressions, in the end it is quite effective", appreciates Alain Procar, already certain that on the educational level too, "there will have a before and after "this health crisis.
Obliged to invent a new way to move forward in the program, Laurie Lavgez, professor of history and geography, began to practice "the reverse class" with her students: she sent them the lessons by email, and devoted her virtual lesson session to students' questions and correcting exercises. But this distance education “also requires a lot of investment on the part of parents, to ensure that it follows at home,” notes the teacher, mother of two teenagers, private like her to go to class. For ten days, they are three to share, cahin-caha, the only wifi connection of the family.
Marie-Agnès Sersiron, her colleague in philosophy, for her part reactivated the Youtube channel that she had created a year ago, without having had time to give it life. She posts fifteen-minute videos there, recorded in front of the white background of the cupboards in her home, each corresponding to a point in the Terminale program. "It's very interesting to do," she says, "but it takes a lot of time: between that, the copy corrections, the class advice, we're not on vacation at all." So much the better: the professor, in her mid-fortnight after being diagnosed as a "contact case" exposed to the virus, is very happy to "change her mind" by teleworking.
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As for the students, we adapt as best we can. The question begins to emerge, on high school messengers, like at Marie-Curie, in Nogent-sur-Oise on the part of worried parents: will the national baccalaureate exams be adapted, so that the subjects chosen take into account the delay for students affected by the closure of their high schools? "Of course the question will arise," we breathe behind the scenes of National Education. The subject, however, has not yet been officially raised by the Directorate General for School Affairs.
"We are far behind"
Logan, pupil of 1st in Nogent-sur-Oise
Logan, in class 1 at the Marie-Curie high school in Nogent-sur-Oise, follows the virtual classes and conscientiously copies the lessons sent by his teachers. "But I don't understand everything, and we have the French bac coming," remarks the young man. "We will necessarily learn less," says his girlfriend Hanna. Two weeks of online courses are not worth two weeks of class. "
In the Haut-Rhin, another department where the schools were closed before time, the same problems worried the pupils. Marion, in Terminale S in a rural high school where classes have been stopped since March 9, is worried to know that “the white bac planned in two weeks is canceled, so as not to further delay the resumption of classes. But I would have liked to have had training before the exam… ”sighs the girl. "In physics, the program is heavy, we were not already sure to reach the end before the closure, there I am sure that we will not finish the program," she alarmed.