Icon: enlarge
Lessons at the Collège Henri Matisse in Nice.
Photo: ERIC GAILLARD / REUTERS
Sometime last spring, Adrien, a primary school student in Paris, began to sing the Corona song: "Hey, Coronavirus, take your things and go home - go back to where you came from." He made it up with friends , it sounded like a mini rap.
Behind the seven-year-old there was a severe shutdown of 55 days during which he could not see his classmates and friends.
One of the highlights of the day was talking on the phone to children in the neighborhood while they waved from window to window.
He exchanged video messages with the others.
The Paris gardens and parks were closed, as were the schools, most parents were frightened, and each family's range of movement was limited to one kilometer from their own home.
Adrien's mother booked a WhatsApp group organized by local residents for 30 minutes a day in the open air in the courtyard of the house to play with her son without him coming into contact with other children.
During these weeks Adrian woke up every night: he didn't want everyone to die, he said to his drowsy parents.
"The mask is really stupid, but very good for your health."
Adrien
Adrien has been back to school since September, and every morning he puts on a mask: "It's really stupid, but very good for your health," he says with a serious expression.
And his little cousin, who sits next to him, adds: “If everyone tries a little, the virus goes away faster.
If not, it may last for a lifetime. ”Being a child in times of pandemics is not always easy.
And yet it is easier again since 12.4 million French students - from preschool to high school - have regained a crucial part of their everyday life: school lessons.
Since the end of the summer holidays, France's schools have reopened, albeit under extensive security measures.
Classes have been reduced in size and meal times in the school canteens have been extended so that fewer students sit at one table.
In the corridors there are now direction arrows on the floor and in front of the toilets there are circles in which you should wait without getting close to the others.
Physical education can only take place outside.
In primary schools, teachers are required to regularly renew the students' masks and disinfect their hands.
The infection rate among schoolchildren remains manageable
And so France is the country that had the most teaching days in the past year in an EU comparison.
So far, there have only been a few clusters at schools that were then closed immediately, but by and large the infection rate among students remains manageable.
According to various studies, old people's homes, hospitals and private dinners pose more dangers.
In a survey conducted in December 2020, the Paris Institute Pasteur found a slightly higher risk of infection for parents of school-age children.
In the same study, however, the researchers cited being with work colleagues in the office and meeting friends or relatives as the main sources of infection.
Icon: enlarge
"School is the heart of the republic": President Macron visited a primary school in Poissy at the end of the first lockdown in May 2020
Photo: POOL New / REUTERS
From the beginning, it was a central concern of the French government to reopen the schools.
In mid-June, President Emmanuel Macron said in a televised address to the nation that classes would resume nationwide on June 22.
more on the subject
Icon: Spiegel Plus vaccine skeptics in France: "The resistance has a lot to do with distrust of the political class" An interview by Britta Sandberg, Paris
Corona pandemic: Maximum alert level in ParisBy Britta Sandberg, Paris
It was a political and largely symbolic decision that was criticized from many quarters, with only two weeks remaining until the start of the big summer vacation.
But the message was set: life goes on, straight and first of all for the students.
The state does not leave them alone.
»Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité« - the republican idea should first and foremost be lived in schools
Schools play a special role in France.
It is considered the heart of the republic, it is the secular DNA of the country.
On it, little French people are to become citizens who are committed to the values of the republic.
Attendance at a state school has been mandatory for children aged three and over since 1882.
The upbringing of French children should not be left to the Church.
This is how it is to this day, and the political debates about wearing religious symbols in schools - be it a cross or a headscarf - show how deeply this promise is anchored in French society.
The republican idea of "Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité" ("Freedom, Equality, Fraternity") should first and foremost be taught and lived in schools.
But the much-touted »Égalité«, social equality, is no longer worth much if children from educationally disadvantaged families cannot follow digital lessons during a lockdown and are left behind even further.
When more and more children and young people drop out of school, as happened in spring 2020.
This realization also led to the decision to reopen the schools without interruption.
Pediatricians and psychologists had been sounding the alarm for months: there was a worrying, significant increase in suicide attempts among under 15-year-olds, warned Richard Delorme, child psychologist at the Robert Debré hospital in Paris, last November.
“We are currently seeing an alarmingly large group of children and young people who are not doing well.
These are the adults of tomorrow. "
Elise Launay, President of the national pediatric association "Groupe de Pédiatrie Général"
“We are currently seeing an alarmingly large group of children and young people who are not doing well.
These are the adults of tomorrow, "said Elise Launay, president of the national pediatric association" Groupe de Pédiatrie Général "at the beginning of the year.
On January 25, when another lockdown loomed in France, numerous pediatrician associations appealed to the government not to close schools under any circumstances.
Socially, the decision to continue teaching is largely undisputed.
Many French parents work in both parts, the all-day schools including lunch at lunchtime are part of their everyday care model.
And at the moment there is nothing to indicate that the government will change anything in its current course, apart from local lockdowns.
For that to happen, the situation would have to worsen dramatically, Prime Minister Jean Castex said recently.
After the winter holidays, Covid 19 tests for students and teachers are to be stepped up again.
Health Minister Olivier Véran announced up to 200,000 saliva tests per week, especially for primary schools.
A million teachers and students have been tested for the virus in the past few weeks.
Seven-year-old Adrien believes that "this virus will take a long time."
But he sleeps better now than he did last spring.
Collaboration: Petra Truckendanner
Icon: The mirror