The pretty summer camps: it's starting all over again!
The government is releasing 40 million euros to relaunch, this summer, the Colos learners device, exclusively unveils Sarah El Haïry, Secretary of State for Youth and Engagement, this Tuesday, May 18 at Parisien - Today in France.
At least 75,000 children and adolescents are concerned, primarily those from lower-income neighborhoods.
Launched in June 2020 in the wake of the first confinement, this device allows students from 3 to 17 years old to stay in France, during the holidays, combining leisure and educational activities.
It is free for the privileged target, the poorest.
Objective: open summer camps to all, and take the opportunity to try to catch up with the school dropout induced by a year shaken up by the Covid-19 health crisis and distance education.
"Essential steps for young people"
“Normally, one in three children does not go on vacation,” recalls Sarah El Haïry. With the health crisis we are going through, this concerns a greater proportion of children. This is a major discrimination during the start of the school year, which is often accompanied by the question:
What did you do this summer?
Our common desire with Jean-Michel Blanquer
(Editor's note: the Minister of National Education)
is to offer holidays to all children and to compensate for this inequality. "
In 2020, 69,525 children benefited from these learning camps - between summer and All Saints' Day. Far, therefore, from the objectives announced by the government of “remobilization of knowledge” for… 250,000 students. In Paris, for example, of the 3,400 places funded in learning camps, only 1,978 had been filled. The educational objective, too, had struggled to take. “But it was my son Karim's first real vacation. He had never left without us before ”, welcomes Leïla, a mother from Sevran (Seine-Saint-Denis).
Because the social criterion is essential in these post-confinement camps. "Over the summer, about 25% of the children were residents of priority areas of the city," reminds the Ministry of Youth, while the overwhelming majority (70%) of interested families consider that the aid financial is "necessary" to participate. Thus "52% of the participants in 2020 had never left for colonies", we still note in the entourage of Sarah El Haïry. The Secretary of State repeats it: “Vacation stays are essential stages for young people, often offering them their first life experiences outside the family framework. The long periods of confinement, then of progressive deconfinement have upset the daily life of children and young people during the last fifteen months. "
State support up to 400 euros per young person and per week
Example in Clichy-sous-Bois (Seine-Saint-Denis), where about 200 children participated in the learning camps last year, figures Olivier Klein, the mayor PS.
"It was organized a little bit
hard
, we will probably have more families interested this year, ”he hopes, still awaiting the details of the measure. He also notes that these summer camps must "adapt" to the crisis. “This summer, the city cannot organize, because of the epidemic, language stays in Spain or England, although they have traditionally been very successful. National Education must mobilize language teachers on these camps, to make up for this lack, ”the city councilor remarks. Who also adds that it must still be "vacation", "break" for young people, "jostled" by "an extraordinary year".
In concrete terms, how does that work ? These stays are organized by the usual settlement providers - popular education association, local authority, private structures, works council - which benefit from financial support from the State to the tune of € 400 per young person and per week, the remainder being paid for by the organizer. If the summer camps are open to everyone, financial assistance is only possible for "priority groups (dropouts, city or rural political areas, single-parent families, etc.)", specifies the ministry. “In this case, registration is carried out by the community. You have to get in touch with the youth service of your municipality ”. For others, registration is possible online, via www. coloniesapprenantes.gouv.fr.