Jean-Rémi Girard is president of the
SNALC
(National union of high schools and colleges).
FIGAROVOX.-
Médiapiart
has revealed that Jean-Michel Blanquer unveiled the health protocol the day before the start of the school year through the press, from his vacation spot, Ibiza. Do you consider the behavior of the Minister of National Education casual in view of the health situation in schools?
Jean-Remi GIRARD. -
On a political and symbolic level, this clearly gives an impression of casualness. Colleagues find it hard to understand being told that they have to make an effort, apply implausible evening protocols for the next day, all this to realize that their minister was only following the organization of the start of the school year from afar. Remember that a Minister of National Education must above all be there to explain the situation of the School to the other members of the government, so that the policy decided upon does not disrupt the entire school system. He clearly failed in this regard.
Beyond the image conveyed by Ibiza, it is in substance that there was a major dysfunction: the minister accepted that we apply measures overnight, measures which we have not even failed to properly notify colleagues. Personally, as a teacher, the new measures were only sent to me on my professional email on Monday around 11 a.m. We had already had to apply them for 3 hours. Some received absolutely nothing. This is an essential element for the SNALC to understand the strong mobilization of all staff on January 13th. It is logical for a minister to communicate in the media; it is on the other hand a serious lack of professionalism that it is notdoes not ensure that the people who actually have to apply the measures have been made aware.
What is the current situation in schools? Is it tenable for teachers and parents of students?
The situation is still very tense.
The proportion of absent students is very high, and it is very complicated to have continuous teaching, to organize controls or white bins, for example.
Many personnel are also affected and are almost never replaced.
The announcements made by the Prime Minister on the evening of the January 13 strike remain insufficient, and above all their implementation is not done with a snap of the fingers.
Once again, we waited until it was too late to react, when a union like mine has been posing fundamental problems for more than a year and a half.
It must be understood that we have transformed each school structure into a mini regional health agency...
Jean-Remi Girard
In a very concrete way, primary schools, school life in colleges and high schools and nursing staff are the three sectors most in tension, sometimes at the limit or beyond burn-out. It must be understood that we have transformed each school structure into a mini-regional health agency, in which we must do “contact-tracing”, health information, spreadsheets to ensure the follow-up of positives and cases contacts, distribution and collection of various certificates, etc. And all this work is done free of charge, in addition to and often even instead of our missions. Educational assistants (former supervisors) no longer have time to do their usual work: they are in numbers often reduced by the pandemic, doing Covid-19 all day.The same goes for primary school principals and their colleagues, who are at their wit's end.
What health protocol do you recommend?
The SNALC, with many actors in the educational world, has been asking for a collective budget for education since the start of the 2020 school year (yes, 2020). We fully understand that the State is committed to supporting the economy or culture; we understand less that he has done nothing for a year and a half to support the School. We need personnel, we need work in our establishments, in our canteens. We also need the ping-pong between state and local communities to stop on the issue of air quality. Let's also remember that until now, our employer has only distributed fabric masks to us, some of which allow everything to pass so much that we can fog up the windows with them.We are waiting for the promised surgical and FFP2 masks for the moment: at the moment, we still haven't seen them.
Beyond the material aspects, transparency is needed on the management of protocols and the health indicators that underlie it. Currently, while we are experiencing a “tidal wave” according to the Minister of Health, the level of protocol is only two in college and high school (there are four levels in all). Do we need a comet to get to level three? We must also insist on the long-term educational consequences of the pandemic, which have already led the ministry to postpone the national mid-CP assessments and which should also lead to the reorganization of the specialty tests for the general and technological baccalaureate, which should normally start on March 14.
There, for the moment, we are delegated health missions, we are forced to do a dotted teaching, all for the beautiful eyes of the minister...
Jean-Remi Girard
Finally, it is absolutely necessary that the staff be respected on a material level as well as on a moral level. We must not swing structural changes overnight, we must be informed in advance so that each school, college or high school has time to organize and dialogue with parents and students. And you have to walk the talk. It's very nice to tell us that we have been doing a wonderful job in difficult conditions for almost 2 years; it will be even better when this overload and this commitment are recognized by a bonus. There, for the moment, we are delegated health missions, we are forced to do dotted teaching, all for the beautiful eyes of the minister... which we cannot see anyway, because in Ibiza,they are hidden behind sunglasses.