While the Covid 19 epidemic generally explodes in France and particularly in schools, the management of the health crisis by the National Education is strongly criticized. JM Blanquer maintains his words: “there is less contamination in schools than in the general population”.
Doubling of sick students
Bad figures for the National Education which shows a doubling of the number of contaminated pupils during the week of March 19 with 15,484 pupils against 9221 the previous week and 1809 personnel against 1106. Even these numbers are clearly underestimated. The Ministry of Health gives 8,307 young people aged 0 to 19 infected for the single day of March 15.
Already very worrying data
On March 19, on BFM, JM Blanquer did not know what to answer to JJ Bourdin who pointed out to him that with 0.5% of positive tests, National Education is clearly above the incidence rate in the population including in the most affected regions. In fact, according to the Ministry of Health, the average incidence rate in France is 64. That of 0-9 year olds is 30 and 72 for 10-19 year olds.
“There is less contamination than in the general population” JM BLanquer maintained on LCI on March 21. According to the minister, the number of positive people is 2 to 4 times lower than that of the general population. According to the Ministry of Health, the positivity rate is 8.7 in France and 8.8 for 10-19 year olds.
Above all, the incidence rate of young people of school age is growing rapidly and is exploding in the 16 departments, for example in the IDF, where it exceeds the November level.
Ministerial denial
A situation that a member of the Covid 19 Scientific Council, Arnaud Fontanet, highlighted in the JDD. According to him, “the school is the assumed Achilles heel of the current system” (of reconfinement). He finds that “the question arises” for the closure of establishments and recalls that the risk was already higher for a family with a college or a high school student even before the English variant appeared.
Another criticism comes from the prefect of Jura who, in a statement to Progress on March 19, stresses that “young people and minors are at the heart of the chain of contamination. They contaminate each other then with parents and grandparents” , while JM Blanquer continues to put things in reverse order. Similar remarks are echoed by the Belgian Prime Minister who says that “the contaminations are mainly in two places: schools and the workplace”. He summoned the education ministers to propose measures for the reopening of schools.
The testing policy is also not immune to criticism. On BFM JM Blanquer declared 300,000 saliva tests proposed last week including 250,000 performed. Geraldine Woessner, a journalist from Le Point, went to check with Health Insurance: only 72,000 tests were actually carried out during this week. This does very little for 12 million students and even only 6.5 million if we only want to consider primary school children.
“We have made a rise in saliva tests which has no example in European countries” continues to say JM BLanquer. Yet Austria, for example, tests its million pupils twice a week. But it is true that these are not saliva tests …
Teachers’ vaccination postponed until summer
Faced with such a dangerous situation, without a general campaign of tests, without half-groups at college and at school, the French unions are asking for the vaccination of teachers. “The decision to confine while keeping schools and schools open must commit the government to reconsider its decision not to prioritize access to vaccination for all of its staff,” writes Se Unsa. Snes Fsu asks for “a vaccination schedule” for teachers. For Snuipp Fsu, “urgently, all staff must be able to be vaccinated as quickly as possible so as not to jeopardize the continuity of the public education service”.
JM Blanquer responded on March 21. “When we arrive around April, May, June, it is possible that we can target the teachers”.
The facts will quickly tell what the ministerial remarks and the decision to confine the 16 departments are worth while keeping the school structures open and without real development. In a month at the latest, the words and decisions of the Minister will be read in the light of the evolution of the pandemic, the long sick and the dead.
Francois Jarraud
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