The ghosts of the first confinement, in spring 2020 – the only one integrating schools – are back. “Roll on videoconferences with children on their knees,” quips Paul, accountant and father of two girls, in Pas-de-Calais. Emmanuel Macron will he announce the closure of schools in the coming days, or even from this Wednesday, March 31, at the end of the new Health Defense Council, returning toddlers in the paws of their parents? “Only he knows”, we whisper in high places.
In recent days, schools have become a point of tension in the crisis of Covid-19. As the number of patients in critical care has passed the peak of the second wave (5,072 on Tuesday), many epidemiologists are calling for their closure. “We must tackle transmissions in the workplace and in schools,” summarizes Professor Eric Caumes, head of the infectious diseases department at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital in Paris. With the new health protocol in force since Monday in 19 departments, which provides for the closure of a class as soon as a student tests positive for coronavirus, it falls as in Gravelotte.
Closures on the rise
The National Education specified this Tuesday that it was “too early” for a first assessment, but the Snes-FSU, secondary union, identified 535 class closures on Monday alone at the academies of Créteil, Lille, Versailles and Lyon, to which must be added the 227 announced by the town hall of Paris. That is 762 more closed classes (+ 26%) compared to the 2,962 recorded on Friday.
However, stuck between the desire to “preserve the education of children”, hammered by a Jean-Michel Blanquer happy to be minister of one of the countries to have kept its schools open the most, and the pleas of doctors under pressure , the government must also deal with parents. Those who, beyond fears of dropping out of school, fear having to keep their flocks while working.
This Tuesday, in front of the deputies, the Minister of Health Olivier Véran tried to reassure, however maintaining the doubt on an imminent decision: “Whatever should happen in the coming days, we will continue to do the maximum of course to allow our children to have the most appropriate educational and childcare solutions possible according to the severity of the moment. “
“It’s a double penalty: we have a crisis with the little ones and we are paid less”
So, on the side of families, anguish is mounting. “If they close the schools, I’m in a difficult situation. I have to be at my office as much as possible to meet my clients face-to-face… ”, explains Loïc, father of three children and 35-year-old notary, in Seine-et-Marne. His partner is also held face to face several days a week. “Even by cutting back on our timetables, we will have to resort to grandparents. Does that make me happy? No, he laments. They are not yet vaccinated… If my children infect them, I will be mad at it all my life. But do I have a choice? “
Audrey, a mother of three, fears having to teach at home again. “Mistress, it’s a job! I don’t have their patience or their knowledge: during the first confinement, it was hell, ”she sums up. Especially since this commercial will have to take a work stoppage for childcare, depriving her of part of her income. “It’s the double penalty: we have a crisis with the little ones and we are paid less,” she blows. Stopping will be impossible for Carine and Joseph, parents of Louise, 4 years old. “Just in case, the train ticket for Vendée, where my mother lives, is booked,” explains Carine. I will drop my daughter off, because I cannot telecommute 11 hours a day with her on my knees, and my husband does not telecommute. “
Still, the supposed announcement would have at least one merit, smiles Carine: “Put an end to the permanent cacophony!” “A” puzzle “for many families, recognizes Hubert Salaün, of the Peep, association of parents of pupils. “If there is a window of fire to keep the school open, let’s do it,” he pleads, recalling “the serious psychological consequences” of dropping out of school. Less clear-cut, the FCPE, the other big federation, asks for “means” and “a real protocol” to keep schools open. If they close? “We must optimize pedagogical continuity, for example, by hiring students to supervise students on the distance”, asks its spokesperson, Rodrigo Arenas.
The fear of contamination
Another anxiety: that of contamination in the playgrounds. As a result, more and more families are dropping their flocks from school. “It’s a growing phenomenon,” confirms Bruno Bobkiewicz, national secretary of SNPDEN, the union of principals and principals, which has two students kept at home by their families in his school complex in Val-de-Marne. If the National Education says that the positive cases among the students tested oscillate between 0.35% and 0.5%, these figures are underestimated, because saliva screening does not affect 100% of children.
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A situation too dangerous, believes Zora, mother of Adam and Noam, schooled in Sevran (Seine-Saint-Denis). As of Monday, feeling “the pressure of the virus”, she withdrew them from their school. “We catch up with a few months of schooling more easily than our health”, summarizes the forty-something, specifying that one of the toddlers has asthma. The telecommuting secretary therefore gets up at 5 am to work remotely as much as possible before taking care of the little ones. She rushes her day and starts homework at 2 p.m. “It’s not ideal,” she admits. But is it at school, masked, with tired teachers to whom, moreover, I take my hat off, is it better? “
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