Back to school on May 11? Teachers, parents, elected officials and pupils welcome this perspective in a contrasting way in the face of the coronavirus health crisis.
Teachers: "Dropouts Will Not Return"
Can he see himself as a class at his CM, with a cloth mask on half of the face? For Stéphane, a teacher in a school in the Ardennes, it's no. "It is so anxiety-provoking to present myself like this before them, especially if the children are not wearing them ..." reflects the teacher, divided between the desire to find his class and fear. "I don't know how I'm going to organize myself, with my tiny class of 25 m2," he breathes. The distance between each table, I will not be able to assure it. "
At the other end of France, in her college in the Lot, Valérie Carles is under heavy fire from families. She has no answer. "I'm making everyone wait, and it's very trying," says the principal. According to her, having the middle school students have lunch at their work table "is not playable, unless they each bring their picnic".
And what about “crowds at 5 pm at school pickup time? She wonders. "I want the school to resume, but not at any cost. I will not take responsibility for endangering the school community. Anne-Christine Burlon hesitates to take the metro, to find her high school in downtown Lyon. "The risk that everyone is running seems to me disproportionate, compared to the low educational interest of the recovery," says this teacher of letters, member of Snes-FSU, the majority union in the second degree. "The dropout students will not return on a voluntary basis, that's obvious ..."
Parents: "We can't wait to see more clearly"
No one around Anne-Cécile has yet been reached by the Covid-19. The threat is therefore "very abstract" for this Ile-de-France mother and the recommendations of the Scientific Council did not change her mind: "I do not see why I would not put my children in class on May 11, says she. Our children need to find the community. "
An optimism that is far from shared by all parents. At the Henri-Matisse college in Issy-les-Moulineaux (Hauts-de-Seine), the local federation FCPE surveyed families. Result: 40% of parents have planned to send their child to school, 27% oppose it ... and a third are still hesitant.
"We can't wait to see more clearly on how the return to class will be organized concretely", summarizes Nadège Labadie, FCPE delegate at the college, who is already training her son, in 5th grade, to wear the fabric mask than her grandmother made it for him. "If necessary, we will take gloves, gel, and forward ... but I admit that I am not reassured," said Christelle, who is raising her two daughters alone in the Toulouse region. Her eldest, Lola, in the second grade, already told her that she preferred to continue the class from a distance. Christelle said yes. As for her little Lina, 8 years old, her return to school will depend… on the return to work of her mother, who is employed in a school canteen. "If the job calls me back," she explains, "I can't help but send her back to class. "
Elected officials: “We will have to be flexible”
In charge of primary schools, mayors are particularly attentive to the protocol that will be proposed to reopen classes. On April 21, the Association of Mayors (AMF) had already made public a list of concerns, ranging from the reception conditions of students to the financial coverage of the additional costs. “There is no reason to have a new position after the publication of the opinion of the Scientific Council. But that makes the details that we are waiting for even more important, ”we slip cautiously at the AMF. This does not prevent some from being frankly hostile to the reopening of schools.
"The Scientific Council has the wisdom to tell the government what the reality of Covid-19 is. It is imprudent, unreasonable to open schools without having first started deconfinement ”, protests the mayor (Divers Gauche) of Montpellier (Hérault), Philippe Saurel for whom“ the end of this epidemic cannot be decreed politically ”.
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The town councilor will listen carefully to the Prime Minister on Tuesday before deciding whether to take a school closure order, even if he knows that he will be immediately broken by the prefect. President of the association of mayors of Hérault, Christian Bilhac, mayor without label of Péret, entrusts to our newspaper that it is for him "out of the question" to open schools for the hundred pupils of his commune . "After thirty-seven years in office, I do not want to end on a deadly note", warns the one who is ready to "take the wrath of the state".
Conversely, Dominique Bussereau, the president (without label) of the Assembly of the departments of France, which are in charge of the colleges, is resolutely favorable to the reopening on May 11. "Giving masks, we know how to do it," he reassures, while acknowledging that some department presidents are also "fairly hostile" to the reopening. “Perhaps it will not be necessary to go back to school in certain very affected cities like Mulhouse or Crépy-en-Valois. We will have to be flexible, ”he admits.
PODCAST. Coronavirus: the first “home” in France, how the Oise saw the “wave” arrive
Students: "The risk is not worth it"
The prospect of going back to class in May is a mistake, according to the National High School Student Movement (MNL). "Our position has not changed, even after the recommendations of the Scientific Council were announced," said Narivelo Randrianarisoa, spokesman for the high school student union. No classes before September, for health and student protection issues. For the MNL, "the risk is not worth it", citing as an example the case of Japan where classes were closed a week after their reopening due to the arrival of a second wave of the epidemic .
Sasha, 16, in second year at the Lycée Jules-Ferry in Paris (9th arrondissement), is only waiting for that "to find friends and finally get out of the house". However, he wonders how his school will manage to apply the rules. "At 35 per class, I don't see how we will be able to divide into groups of 15!" There are not enough rooms, unless you only go to school every other day or two alternately, which would be annoying after several weeks at home. "
It is the obligation to wear a mask that first worries Hector, 14, in 5th grade at Saint-Justin college in Levallois-Perret (Hauts-de-Seine): "I will put it on but only if I am there strength… I don't feel at all comfortable with it. "
VIDEO. Back to school on May 11: "My children will stay at home"
