Covid: in high schools and colleges, the track of “systematic” half-groups

For the moment, nothing is moving. Despite the acceleration of the Covid-19 epidemic and the concern of the Director General of Health, Jérôme Salomon, who called on Sunday, in the “JDD”, to be “Very attentive to schools and universities”, the pupils went back to their school as before the holidays.

Depending on the evolution of the health situation, high schools and colleges could however switch to a teaching mode “Systematic hybrid”, said Jean-Michel Blanquer, Sunday evening on BFM, while relativizing the situation. “We are not there yet”, he stressed. The unions have an appointment at the Ministry of National Education on Thursday to take stock.

70% of high schools in hybrid mode

The hybrid mode has been in effect since early November in many high schools. By mid-December, only 30% of them had retained a 100% face-to-face education. Very few colleges have started.

“There are as many situations as there are teachers or chests”, affirms Philippe Vincent, at the head of the main union of school leaders, SNPDEN. Some teachers give their lessons face-to-face to part of the class and at the same time distribute it to the other part, remotely. This option, “Minority” according to Jean-Rémi Girard, from the Snalc union, is sometimes “Impossible, if the school does not have wi-fi, or if some students do not have the necessary equipment to connect”.

In other cases, alternation applies (week A for some, week B for others), with virtual classes. But “The most applied version”, according to the trade unionist, consists in sending the work via the electronic textbook to students who are not present in the establishment.

“We tinkered with the flow”

In high schools, practices also vary depending on the subject and the teacher. “We tinkered with the flow, with the bandwidths, networks and servers we had”, decrypts the principal (SNPDEN) of the Montebello high school in Lille, Florence Delannoy.

Why have “Tinkered with”, whereas the Ministry of National Education had drafted, this summer, a pedagogical continuity plan making it possible to resort to additional premises where the pupils had to be supervised so as not to remain alone at home? He was “Stored in a drawer”, comments Philippe Vincent, pointing out the lack of personnel to carry it out.

Leveling down

Many high school students therefore study at home for half of school time. And anger rises in some parents who dread ” some inequalities “ between high schools which continue to provide 100% of their face-to-face lessons and the others. “The distancing does not work at all, contrary to what people try to make us believe, assured Monday on LCI the president of the federation of parents PEEP of Val-de-Marne, Myriam Menez. At best, students receive homework by email. “

On the side of teachers and principals, the concern is mainly about exams, because they believe that not all high school students will be “Not prepared the same way”. Some students can follow all of their specialty courses face-to-face, while others are subject to hybrid mode. “Why not switch 100% of high schools to hybrid in order to put everyone on an equal footing? “ wonders a principal who has seen the number of Covid cases drop drastically with the organization into half-groups, which would however amount to a race to the bottom of lessons.

All trade unions have also criticized the maintenance of the calendar of specialty bac exams in March. “The minister chose the worst solution: that of making the suspense last and possibly canceling them two weeks before they are held”, regrets a principal. An ordinance published at the end of December indeed provides for the possibility of adapting the organizational arrangements for the 2021 baccalaureate session just two weeks before the exams.

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