For the staff of National Education, and after each government communication, the ritual is now well known: direction the famous “Frequently Asked Questions” (FAQ), published on the ministry’s website. “This is where the latest changes in health protocol appear, highlighted in yellow. Here, therefore, teachers and school principals inquire about them and try to figure out how to put them in place. Sometimes, at the hurry, because these adjustments apply from the next day “, breathes Stéphane Crochet, secretary general of SE-Unsa, in an undisguised spike at the publication of the new sanitary rules at school in The Parisian on the eve of the return to school in January by Jean-Michel Blanquer. This ritual, particularly trying, reaches its limits. This communication too.
Like almost all unions in the teaching world and primary education, the SE-Unsa calls a strike on Thursday, January 13. The teachers have until Monday evening to declare themselves. “Our feedback from the field foreshadows a very sustained strike. The difference with this movement is that all the unions are involved, even those of the heads of secondary schools and high schools, which is rare,” slips the general secretary of SNUipp-FSU Guislaine David. Well, almost all of them, because the Sgen-CFDT is missing. He said all the same on Twitter: “The two CFDT unions are preparing mobilizations. They are very angry because there is no consultation. There is a form of authoritarianism on the part of the Ministry of National Education.”
This anger is specifically directed against the responsible minister. “The personnel can no longer take the Blanquer protocols, can no longer take orders and permanent counter orders”, observes the Snudi-FO. “The tension has been very strong with the minister for many months. But to this is added a feeling of contempt, currently”, adds Stéphane Crochet.
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Context also plays a role. If the start of the school year is still fresh, this week was one of all health records. Some 223,207 cases are detected each day on average, with peaks above 300,000. About 8% of teachers were absent as of January 6. The incidence rate – the number of cases per 100,000 people – is over 1,500 in those under 9 years old. From then on, the number of classes closed due to Covid skyrocketed, and reached the level of the end of November, when the closure of a class upon detection of the first case of Covid was still mandatory.
Misunderstandings
This is no longer the case today. The idea: not to close classes, and to resort massively to screening and in particular to self-tests. But it is this measure that is causing tension in the world of education today. The students are therefore subjected to three tests in four days if there is a positive case in the class: an antigen or PCR on the day of the announcement of the Covid case (D0), with certificate to be given to the school, then self-tests to be done at home on D + 2 and D + 4. This device is far from reassuring.
“This test on D0 does not ensure that the children are not already carriers of the virus. They can then return to school and they can spread it, which generates cascading problems”, underlines Laurent Hoefman, president of the national union of schools, and school director near Lille, which also points to the possible flaws of the self-tests in the detection of the Omicron variant which has become the majority in the country. On social networks, several testimonies have highlighted this increased risk of the virus spreading, even after a first negative test. For positive tests on D + 3 and beyond, the government did not specify until Thursday that they would not have to carry out a new full course of tests.
The other point of tension concerns cases of intrafamilial contact. “We had two opposing instructions: one from the Ministry of National Education which affirmed that children could still come to school, explains Stéphane Crochet. Then, the Ministry of Health recommended isolation. The positions , once again, did not finally line up until late, Thursday evening: a child can therefore come back if his screening on D0 is negative “.
This clarification which does not change the root of the problem. “In December, the children had to stay in isolation for 17 days if they had contact. Today they are coming back to J0. Miracle, there is no more incubation of the virus!”, Annoys a director of ‘a school that testifies anonymously to L’Express.
The risks of contamination are still high. “Ultimately, we risk having a maximum of positive students in families and very few students in classes. These will empty because the children will all be positive or if they are in contact”, thinks Guislaine David.
The unions demand “the return to a manageable situation”, agrees Laurent Hoefman. Or a return to the rule of class closure in a positive case. A rule that is certainly strict, but which has the merit of a certain clarity, especially at the educational level. “It was then easier to carry out face-to-face or distance education for everyone at the same time.”
“We already have our heads under water”
Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer acknowledged Friday on CNews that this protocol was “extremely difficult” for families, who must quickly find time slots in order to obtain appointments for their children (PCR or antigens). Then get self-tests, which stocks are on.
Finally, this new system is particularly trying for school directors. “We already have our heads under water and we are given an additional instruction. For Monday, I have about fifty children’s tests to control, not to mention the emails to process telling me about a new case, or an absent teacher. . It’s too much, “Judge Loic Breilloux, who had already testified for L’Express about his difficult daily life, except for the health crisis.
“Ask students for three tests in four days, when there is no additional staff in the schools. It is unnecessarily heavy,” says Romain Boutholeau, director of a kindergarten. near Nantes, which denounces a “lack of consideration in relation to the field”.
Professionals therefore share good practices. Loïc Breilloux shared a spreadsheet this Sunday to track positive cases and test results in his school. On the phone, he already lists the tasks that await him on Monday morning when he wakes up. “I had a positive test in a class on Tuesday. So I checked the self-tests at D + 2 on Thursday. I will have to control those at D + 4 this Monday. And Friday, I had another case positive in another class, for them, it will therefore be the control of the self-tests on D + 2, then, on Wednesday, those on D + 4. ”
And that’s just the “kids” part. Absences of teachers are already weighing on schools. “A colleague told me that her child was sick. After a screening, he was found to be positive. She has to keep him at home. So I have a class without a teacher for this Monday. J alerted half an hour ago [ce dimanche] parents that there was no chance to replace her. There will all the same a reception of the children, but with a person in civic service who will do daycare. ”
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Children and teachers come and go again and again. Same feeling with Romain Boutholeau, in Nantes. “We have the impression of becoming a school daycare. Every day we find ourselves with different students. It is difficult to ensure real pedagogical continuity.” “I had never thought of going on strike, but now I think I will take the plunge,” concludes Loïc Breilloux. The week at school is likely to be very long again.
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