Covid-19: canceled or remote meetings ... when the parent-teacher bond deteriorates

“I don't know what the principal teacher thinks of my son, nor what course he would be wise to choose in first class next year.

To tell the truth, I don't even know how he looks!

"Like thousands of parents, Nelly, the mother of Jules, a high school student in the second year of school in Blois (Loir-et-Cher), feels" lost ".

Traditionally, it is in January that parent-teacher meetings are held to discuss student guidance, especially in high school.

Alas: Covid-19 obliges, Nelly had to be satisfied with a videoconference.

"For a personalized follow-up, we will come back", she regrets, bitterly.

At a time when the authorities want to avoid any mixing of people in the establishments, the home-school relations have been reduced to the strict minimum, with a strong use of digital technology.

Enough to create "families who have dropped out of their child's school career", summarizes Hubert Salaün, spokesperson for PEEP, a federation of parents of pupils.

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Officially, the National Education recalls that parent-teacher meetings or the delivery of bulletins "represent a mixing of people and raise the question of respect for physical distancing".

They are therefore "strongly discouraged face to face".

It is however specified, on the site of the ministry, that "in order to maintain the link with the families, individual meetings can be proposed, remotely or face-to-face, on fixed time slots", leaving each person in charge of 'establishment of the freedom "to organize the maintenance of the link with families as it wishes, according to its context and in strict compliance with the health protocol".

"It's a gas factory"

But, everyone admits, beyond the logistical issue, "digital technology does not replace face-to-face meetings".

"Impossible to have the feeling of the teachers on our children", regrets Nelly.

Who elaborates: “Last week we had a videoconference on the orientation of the seconds.

The headmaster does everything he can… but it's a gas plant: we are less concentrated, we cannot ask questions, nor discuss special cases… ”In the high school of his son, Jules, meetings -you in person with the guidance counselors have been set up before March, date of the next class council.

"But it will only be two days a week and we have already been warned that there would be no place for everyone", worries Jules' mother.

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A puzzle, too, for school principals.

"We tinker as we can to maintain a little links between us and the families," recognizes the principal of a college in Ile-de-France.

He fears that this distance which is gradually settling between "the educational community" and the parents of his teenagers "will strike the most vulnerable first."

So, he maintained "a minimum" of face-to-face.

“We will organize orientation meetings on a Saturday morning, with only one parent per family, and one teacher per class,” he explains.

With the 6 pm curfew, "no more time to talk"

As for teachers, the same story goes.

“All our school councils were held remotely, by videoconference.

The result is that parents invest much less in their children's school career ”, regrets Alice, a teacher in a school in Beaumont-en-Cambrésis (North).

And the curfew, extended to 6 p.m. across France since January 16, has not helped.

“In our school, one of the times for discussion with the parents of pupils in difficulty took place at the end of the APC

(Editor's note: complementary educational activity)

which take place after the school day.

We leave at 5:45 pm, continues Alice.

With the curfew at 6 p.m., of course, parents no longer have time to talk, they are in a hurry to go home to avoid a ticket!

That's so many fewer exchanges.

"

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On this subject, the National Education has however set up exemptions "to participate in missions of general interest at the request of the administrative authority".

The ministry specifies that "this covers the boards of directors in schools, colleges or high schools", but also "the class councils when they are not in videoconference".