“Open schools are our hallmark.
This is what we will close last.
I invite you to claim it!
"This Tuesday, in front of the parliamentarians of the majority, Jean Castex did not skimp to praise" the French exception ", which consists in not closing schools, even in the event of an outbreak of the Covid epidemic. 19.
In the United States, in the United Kingdom, in Germany… schools closed when the virus took off again.
Not in France, where preventing students from dropping out is a leitmotif.
The reason given is also health: "We contaminate it less than in the rest of society," repeats Jean-Michel Blanquer, Minister of National Education.
Who wields numbers.
According to the first reports of saliva tests deployed for three weeks, "0.35% to 0.5%" of children are positive.
Despite a skyrocketing increase in one week, 2018 classes are closed, according to the latest data available from Friday, just 0.4% of classes in the country.
College and high school students not taken into account
Problem: Many consider these figures to be underestimated.
Especially since the government has just given the green light, this Tuesday, to a priority vaccination of teachers from mid-end of April, accrediting the thesis that the school is indeed a major site of contamination.
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First, the “0.35 to 0.50%” cited by the Minister do not take into account middle school and high school students, most of the saliva tests being carried out in the first degree.
Regarding seniors, according to epidemiologist Arnaud Fontanet, there is a 30% additional risk of being infected when you have a college or high school student at home.
In addition, screening operations at school are incomplete: 20 to 25% of families refuse the saliva test, and much more in the second degree where the nasopharyngeal is privileged, where only 20% of teenagers are willing to be inserted. swab in the nose.
High school students, in case of symptoms, tend to be tested in the laboratory.
Thus, in a college in Val-de-Marne, recently subjected to a saliva screening, the results of which were communicated to parents on Monday.
“0.66% of the sample is positive.
It may not seem like much, but it is a higher prevalence rate than that indicated by the minister, notes Paul, a father.
All the more so as the ARS tells us that 25% of the staff did not accept the test, which did not concern any adult, and that students who were already infected were at home in isolation ... This makes holes in the racket !
»In Gournay-sur-Marne (Seine-Saint-Denis), only 15 to 17 pupils went to their kindergarten last week, whereas the numbers usually stand at 270 children!
A large majority of those absent were positive or contact cases, explains the FCPE, which deplores that no screening has been carried out.
Redo sport indoors, "incomprehensible"
In this context, the return of indoor sport for schools, announced last week, is debated.
“I was on the front line, in January, to allow us to do classes in the gyms, because of the cold and the virus a little less present.
But there, it's incomprehensible: the epidemic is on the rise, the weather is fine… I will not change my program and will stay outside, for safety, ”laments Fanny, a PE teacher in Finistère.
In this context, the usual levers for optimizing virus hunting are on the table.
Among them, the closure of the canteen, "ultimate lever" of the Rue de Grenelle, possible, but not desirable because too necessary socially, recalled Jean-Michel Blanquer in our columns, ten days ago.
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A little novelty is catching on.
Self-tests, a little less reliable, but easier to use than PCR tests, are the subject of reflection, and could be called upon to be used to test classes.