Twelve million students, their parents and teachers, are at bay.
What will the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron announce during his speech scheduled for Wednesday at 8 p.m.?
The epidemic due to Covid-19 is on the rise, the number of patients in critical care has exceeded that of the second wave (5,072) and the school is singled out by many epidemiologists as the lever to be operated immediately to curb the contagion .
A few hours before the answers, the ambient noise seems to know, here, that "all the schools are closing", there, "that the holidays are advanced" ... "Nothing has been decided", we retort on Wednesday, at 2 p.m., at the Ministry of National Education.
Where we confirm, however, "prepare for everything".
Except for the status quo?
"Bringing forward the holidays", is it effective?
This is what Valérie Pécresse, president (Libres!) Of the Île-de-France region, proposed, who wants to send all toddlers in her region on leave from Monday April 2.
Île-de-France, which is part of zone C (Créteil, Montpellier, Paris, Toulouse, Versailles), is the region most affected by the virus.
“It is useless if it is not accompanied by other measures.
For example if the children, instead of going to class, go to the recreation center for their parents to work, ”retorts Rodrigo Arenas, spokesperson for the FCPE, an association of parents of pupils.
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"This device should be accompanied by other measures to prevent children from having fun in nature," the ministry is told each time this idea comes to the surface.
Because it was already a cartridge engaged, never fired, during the February holidays.
The question is also to know what is behind an "advanced" vacation: "Do we distance ourselves, school at home ... or nothing at all?"
»Asks Philippe Vincent, secretary-general of Snpden, a union of principals.
"Territorialize" the measures, a factor of inequalities?
This is the theory of some: by closing schools only where the virus circulates, we create a breach of equality in education.
“This has already been done”, recalled the rue de Grenelle recently, with reference to the Oise schools closed on March 6, 2020, ten days before the rest of the country.
“In France, more than anywhere else, we advocate an equal and unique school.
So the prospect of closing it here, but not there, makes jump, analyzes Claude Lelièvre, historian of education.
However, in reality, it is already profoundly unequal - depending on the profile of the students, the location ... Would this create other inequalities?
It would displace them.
"
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For Philippe Vincent, this measure would have an advantage, that of localizing the fight against contagion.
But with consequences in cascade: "We still add diversity of situations in relation to the course of the programs", he judges.
And in this case, that would "weaken even more" the end-of-year tests, such as the bac, already very damaged in their raison d'être by the health crisis that never ends.
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For Guislaine David, national secretary of Snuipp-FSU, the majority union of the first degree, this measure "makes sense".
Anyway, she adds, the protocol put in place on Monday, which requires a class to be completed in the first case of a positive pupil, "generates cascading class closures, and de facto, of schools".
However, “in areas highly affected by the virus such as Île-de-France, we must now think of sheltering everyone before thinking of breaking equality.
But the time to be accountable on this subject will come!
"
Dry closure: are we ready?
“No,” answers Guislaine David.
Since September, we could have taken the time to prepare the conditions for a return to distance education, but that was not the case, we were lost in inapplicable protocols.
We are on the bridge at school, and overnight, without preparation, we may be told to go 100% distancing, ”she laments.
For Philippe Vincent, on the other hand, we are ... "a little more ready" than in March 2020. Himself, principal in Marseille, bought "several thousand euros" in connection equipment for his high school.
But it is still necessary to know if the establishments will remain open for teachers, or if they will have to ensure the distance from their home ... with their own equipment, he asks.
For Etienne, principal of a popular neighborhood college where 25% of the flock are in a digital divide, the dry closure would be "catastrophic" and "the 100% distancing will widen terrible inequalities.
"
Hybrid in college, closed canteens ... alternatives
If he does not close the schools, what can the President announce?
First, to pass all the colleges in half-gauge, as are all the high schools of the 19 departments "in red", which makes it possible to limit the mixing.
In the first degree, Guislaine David also regrets that the formula of the school "every other day" - a form of half-gauge - has never been considered.
"We had suggested it in September, it would have made it possible to lighten the workforce and the mixing," recalls the unionist.
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Covid-19: the government's avenues to leave schools open
In the pipes, also: accelerate the vaccination of teachers, locked up all day with students.
Announced by Macron for "mid-end of April", the Minister of National Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, would have asked for it to start next week for teachers in the areas most affected by Covid-19 and especially those of kindergarten, in contact with pupils without masks.
Other avenues, often mentioned: the closure of canteens, deemed "too socially necessary" by the rue de Grenelle, or the massive deployment of CO2 detectors, which make it possible to check whether the air in a classroom can potentially be saturated with virus.
“These are half measures, not ideal, of course, recognizes Guislaine David.
But they would have had the merit, implemented earlier, of avoiding being today at the foot of the wall.
"
