Despite warnings from the Scientific Council and caregivers about a risk of disorganization of the school linked to the spread of Omicron, the government has decided not to postpone the date of the start of the school year.
It will take place on Monday January 3.
"We will not postpone the start of the school year, there will be no distancing in colleges and high schools
, insists the Prime Minister, Jean Castex.
We want to keep schools open for the benefit of children. ”
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Particularly contagious, Omicron should however cause significant absences both on the side of the teachers and that of the students in January.
“Among teachers, there will be a third who will be affected, or even more, directly or indirectly.
It will be the same for the pupils
, "warned epidemiologist Arnaud Fontanet, as of Thursday, on BFMTV.
CO2 sensors pending
A point of view shared by about fifty caregivers who recommend, in a column published in the
JDD,
the
"recourse to distance education until the return to the thresholds of health indicators defined publicly". "We are very concerned about the current level of viral circulation of the coronavirus among children and adolescents of school age,"
they add.
Since the beginning of November, more than 300,000 have been confirmed positive for Covid-19. Hospitalizations (…) have exceeded the peaks of all previous waves, with more than 800 children under 10 and 300 adolescents aged 10 to 19 hospitalized in six weeks. These numbers keep increasing. ”
For more than a year and a half we have been calling for material and human resources to anticipate a bottom wave of the pandemic and to avoid closing schools, which is pedagogically undesirable.
Jean-Rémi Girard, President of Snalc (National Union of National Education Staff).
As for the teachers, the non-postponement of the start of the school year does not change anything for them because the basic questions remain.
"The school is no longer secure in the face of Covid,"
says Sophie Venetitay, secretary general of Snes (National Union of Secondary Education).
In middle and high schools, students have hardly been tested for months. We have recurring questions regarding the ventilation of classrooms and the supply of FFP2 masks, as in Italy, and not in fabric, for which we are still waiting for answers. "" We have been doing more than a year and a half. call for material and human resources to anticipate a bottom wave of the pandemic and avoid closing schools, which is not pedagogically desirable,
supports Jean-Rémi Girard, president of Snalc (National Union of National Education Staff).
To ventilate the classrooms, we are expecting CO2 sensors in half of high schools, two-thirds of middle schools, and four out of five primary schools. "
As for the consequences of teacher absenteeism,
"there will be holes in the timetables for high school students,"
he warns.
In primary schools, classes will be closed because there is also a shortage of replacements. ”
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For parents, this is a relief.
"We appreciate that the start of the school year is not postponed,
sighs Christian, father of three young children in primary school in the Yvelines.
It is not easy for parents to teach from a distance while telecommuting.
Moreover, it is not normal for society to place pressure on children in the treatment of this pandemic, by preventing them from going to school. ”
Same story for this father member of the Peep (Federation of parents of public education students) whose son is in first in Paris.
"This year, it will be the French bac, it is better for him that it be face-to-face than in distance education," he
remarks.