Home » News » “Many directors have the feeling that they are being laughed at”: the Minister of Education justifies the complete reopening of nursery and primary schools

“Many directors have the feeling that they are being laughed at”: the Minister of Education justifies the complete reopening of nursery and primary schools

Parents, children and teachers learned the news on Wednesday evening, around 10 p.m .: finally, the primary and nursery schools will reopen in the coming days. The reasons ? Experts believe that there is ultimately little or no danger to children and their families. Caroline Desir explains this Thursday morning on BEL RTL.

Caroline Désir, Minister of Education of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, was the guest of Fabrice Grosfilley Thursday morning on BEL RTL. The decision was made Wednesday evening to completely reopen the nursery schools on June 2, and the primary schools on June 8 (See the details). A circular was sent to schools overnight.

“Many directors have the feeling that they are being laughed at, because they were given a checklist of 150 points to validate for May 18 and 25. However, there are measures that remain, such as barrier gestures , the circuits to take within the school… And we will undoubtedly have to do it for a long time “.

If everything is turned upside down this week, it’s because “the conditions had been imagined during a National Security Council on April 24, and since then it has changed, the health situation has changed and we also have foreign examples, where the school has resumed for a few weeks without rebound observed “. And recently, “pediatricians and doctors said it was time to take care of children’s mental health”, she explained.

It remains at the discretion of the parents, and according to the organizational capacities of the schools?

“Yes, indeed, we have not changed my mind about this, we will not punish children if some parents are afraid and do not put them in school (no sanction in terms of family allowances And we will take into account the organizational capacities of the schools and their organizing powers which have been asked a lot in recent weeks. A local reality is not the other, and we will continue to work with them in next days”.

However, in September, no doubt, “we will reinstate compulsory education“.

In reality, not everyone will be back in the coming weeks …

“No, and I think it is important to ask the schools to send a message that will be as clear as possible, as quickly as possible, to the parents, regarding the date of a possible resumption. It was already the case the previous weeks to inform them of the calendar. I imagine that decisions will be taken within the organizing powers. ”

Is it the return of full classes in primary?

“We will be able to consider the class group as a contact bubble. This bubble should not be mixed with other contact bubbles. So we ask that the students of a class play with each other in the playground. And at all times, it is the adults, the staff, who must be protected. ”

So there will be classes of 25 students?

“Yes, but we know that the current attendance rates will make it impossible to reach such figures in the classes. But the experts said that it was the whole class group that could be considered as a contact bubble “.

Will there be new learning?

“If we can go back to school physically, we can learn new things. Make up for lost time? In three weeks, everything is relative. We will leave that up to the teachers and trust them. It will eventually depend on number of children in class “.

Teachers will also have to take care of children left at home?

“No, we are not asking teachers to cut themselves in half. We are simply asking them to act with common sense.”

No mask in kindergarten, recommended in primary school: the idea is ‘the smaller we are, the less contagious’?

“Absolutely. This is what I learned from the experts: the 0-12 year old category should be considered as a category apart from this epidemic. They are very little sick and probably not very contagious. So we can really work differently on kindergartens and primary versus secondary. ”

“In summary, the mask is no longer required for all primaries, and they can play freely in the yard”.

For high school students, no new school year?

“No, we consider adolescents as adults in the face of this epidemic. We have chosen not to go further than what had been decided. So it still only concerns the 2nd and 6th years. And for children with academic difficulties, identified by their teacher, the possibility is activated “.

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