This Monday, the return to school of students in zone C should see the number of saliva tests explode. Only the pupils of zone B are still on vacation for a week.
Objective: 200 to 300 tests per week
After 50 to 80,000 tests last week, Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer promised 200,000 tests this week. And ensures that we must be able to “quickly test 300,000 children per week” then.
Objective: to break the chains of contamination of covid-19 in schools.
> Find our article on everything you need to know about saliva tests
But the unions denounce a lack of anticipation and organization … and the teachers complain of having to take the samples themselves!
“To be done by school staff”
In question, a “note” from the Ministry of National Education, according to which the samples “will be made by the staff of the school” … And “as much as possible” by a school nurse, specifies the note.
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On Friday, the unions were already skeptical: “We are in favor of these tests but nothing seems to have been anticipated for their implementation on the ground”, criticized Ghislaine David, general secretary of Snuipp-FSU, the first primary union.
We vigorously denounce this possibility where school staff would therefore still be on their own to prevent the pandemic in schools. The teachers are neither nurses nor laboratory staff. They are no longer part of the successive extensions of the decree of July 10, 2020 listing the personnel who can perform RT-PCR, nasopharyngeal and salivary tests.
Guislaine David, spokesperson for Snuipp-FSU
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Saliva tests, carried out without a nasopharyngeal sample, are a little less restrictive than antigenic tests (called “rapid”) or PCR.
Above all, they have the advantage, for young children, of being less unpleasant: all the pupils have to do is spit into a bottle, or even have saliva taken from under the tongue.
The worried teachers …
However, between the risk of contamination and the overall organization (obtaining the consent of parents, etc.), many teachers point out that they are not laboratory assistants, let alone doctors or nurses.
Which leads the Snuipp-FSU to denounce “yet another tinkering”: “In some departments, the teaching teams would be called upon to contribute after an express ‘training’ delivered by a laboratory staff”, affirms the union.
Others, like the Sgen-FSU, believe that “the ministry does not seem to have learned the lessons from the failure of the antigenic testing campaign: there was no pedagogy around these tests, a lack of mobilization. general health actors “.
The Minister of Health Olivier Véran wanted to test up to a million students and staff per month – but only 200,000 tests have been carried out.
… nurses too
The concern is also palpable among … school nurses: “We do not know what will weigh on our shoulders, we are in the dark”, also worries Saphia Guereschi, general secretary of SNICS-FSU, the union majority of nurses from the national education system.
The 7,400 school nurses, who are assigned to 62,000 school sites, are already struggling to fulfill their usual missions, she recalls.
The main federation of parents of pupils, the FCPE, has “proposed [au ministère] that parents who have a first aid certificate can help pass these tests. No response, ”laments Rodrigo Arenas, co-president of the FCPE.
For his part, Jean-Michel Blanquer ensures that it will be only “on a voluntary basis”, and that “the academic director can ask for reinforcement from the ARS”, specifies the National Education.
Each screening should also be supervised by a laboratory technician, assures the rue de Grenelle. After analysis (within 24 hours), the parents or legal representatives of the child will be informed of the result, and must notify the establishment if the test is positive.
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