The plane tree has seen others. Nevertheless: this Wednesday afternoon, the return to school press conference of the Minister of National Education, organized - it is now a habit - in the garden of the Hôtel-de-Rochechouart, in Paris, will have rarely been so expected as there are still many unresolved questions for families and teachers, six days before the return of 12.3 million schoolbags and backpacks under the courtyards.
How to reconcile a “normal” daily life in the classes, with changing sanitary measures? How to make children succeed for too long away from blackboards? What prospects for a school still shaken by the health crisis and its effects?
"The ministry knows where it is going", insists Jean-Michel Blanquer, anxious to place his fourth return as minister under the sign of stability. Objective: "to stay the course of reforms", at all costs. And to unravel the long list of projects for this year 2020-2021. Here are the main news to remember.
School under Covid: masks for everyone from 11 years old
The rue de Grenelle is trying to maintain a ridge line: adapting its health protocol to the evolution of the rules in force elsewhere in society ... without giving the feeling of tossing students and teachers into counter-orders . Officially, therefore, the July health protocol has not changed. But its new version brings an important change: all adults and children from 11 years old must wear the mask, without distinction and in all circumstances. Kindergarten teachers, who were not concerned in the first version of the protocol, will therefore have to cover their faces, including in the presence of children.
The text, touted as “simple and clear” by Jean-Michel Blanquer, provides for three scenarios. In the event of "controlled" circulation of the epidemic, schools, colleges and high schools operate almost normally, with respect for barrier gestures. The "non-mixing" between the students remains a simple recommendation. According to our information, schools will be invited not to mix students from different levels, but students from different classes may mix.
In the event of "heavy" circulation of Sars-CoV-2 in a given area, the protocol provides for a "hybrid" organization of the school, college and high school. The current reception would be limited and the children would be, in rotation, either in class in small groups or in distance school. In the event of "intense" circulation of the virus, establishments may close. But these two hypotheses remain fictitious for the moment. Ile-de-France and Bouches-du-Rhône, despite their health situation more tense than elsewhere, remain for the moment within the general framework. They could however be applied a slightly harsher protocol, compared to the reference document. But these changes are not yet known.
Tests to assess children's deficiencies
There will be tests at school, and not only if there is a suspicion of contamination with Covid-19. From the start of the school year, the National Education plans to strengthen its policy of assessing children's level, which began 3 years ago. From September 14, students will be tested mainly in French and mathematics, in the “hinge” classes (CP and CE1, 6e and Seconde). In other levels of schooling, “positioning tools” are made available to teachers, but teachers are not required to use them.
In 6th grade in particular, the assessment is expanding this year with a new exercise: the children will have to take turns reading, aloud, a text for 60 seconds so that the teacher can measure their "fluency". that is, the number of words they are able to decipher per minute. This exercise, controversial in the teaching world, should be used to detect young people with reading and comprehension difficulties, from the first days of the year. "We can not knock out the students who have not had school for 6 months for some, with stressful and unsuitable assessments," said Guislaine David, the spokesperson for the main union of school teachers, with fear that the most in difficulty "give up" from the first days of the start of the school year.
Newsletter - Most of the news
Every morning, the news seen by Le ParisienI'm registering
Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to enable you to receive our news and commercial offers. Learn more
Rue de Grenelle, these tests are promoted as transparency tools: parents will be informed by teachers of their child's results, and “remedial measures” should be proposed according to their possible shortcomings. Without touching the school programs, which remain unchanged despite the particular context, the ministry has also designed for teachers a list of points to be reviewed as a priority in September and October, in order to fill in the gaps created last year due to the closure of schools. schools, between March 13 and May 11. More than ever, “the fundamentals” are made a priority: an official grammar of the National Education has even been published.
A right to tutoring in college
It is a "right", insists Jean-Michel Blanquer. All parents of secondary school students can apply for "homework done". This free tutoring, provided by teachers for students in grades 6 to 3, already existed in schools. It will be extended, thanks to the mobilization of 1.5 million additional hours. All children will be able to benefit from it, promises the rue de Grenelle, at the rate of 3 hours of support per week on average, after classes.
The number of students per class decreases in primary
Benefiting from a decline in primary school demographics, the government is starting to implement President Macron's promise to limit all classes in Grande section, CP and CE1 to 24 students throughout France. At the same time, the duplication of CP and CE1 classes in priority education networks, which began in 2017 and which today concerns 300,000 children, is complemented by a duplication in the large nursery section: 20,000 children aged 5 must experience it this coming back to school.
At the same time, Jean-Michel Blanquer promises that the number of children per class will be lower everywhere than at the start of the last school year, at the level of each municipality, and only at the primary level. In high schools, on the other hand, the walls are creaking: the SE-Unsa union "warns of the very high numbers" observed in Seconde, 1re and Terminale, throughout France. In the Paris region, and particularly in Paris, the situation is critical, even “scandalous”, according to the federation of parents of FCPE students, worried about “the hundreds of students” still without a bahut a week before the resumption of classes.
A bonus of 450 euros for school directors
"Reunited", the slogan of the thick 110-page file, published this Wednesday by the National Education, will it be enough to appease a teaching profession on edge? Rejected like the Arlésienne, the site of the revaluation of teachers 'salaries has become "a point of contention", according to the main teachers' union, Snuipp. Negotiations to beautify the payroll of teachers, and particularly that of the youngest, entering the profession, resumed this week at the ministry. Jean-Michel Blanquer announces an envelope of “400 M €” in the budget of the National Education, and real and stumbling results from 2021 for teachers.
Before that, it is the school directors, on the front line of distance learning and the reopening of establishments in the spring, who will benefit from a concrete thank you: they will receive before December an exceptional bonus of € 450.