How was school for the children of caregivers?

• From this Monday, 15% of primary school pupils and 34% of teachers will return to school.
• But 30,000 children have not been confined and have been received in school since mid-March.
• A teacher, who voluntarily worked at the school during confinement, and a nurse whose two daughters went to school, told 20 Minutes how they felt about this particular period.

This Monday, May 11 and the following days, which mark the beginning of progressive deconfinement, many parents hope or fear that their brats will find their way to school. Under what conditions will they be welcomed? Does putting them in a “daycare” worth taking the risk of catching the coronavirus?

Since mid-March, 30,000 students, according to the Ministry of National Education, have been welcomed in certain establishments. The children of caregivers first, then the children of firefighters, gendarmes and police from the beginning of April. How did these students, volunteer teachers and parents experience this period?

"It takes a lot of adaptation, but it was very rewarding"

Charles-Antoine and his partner are among the 20,000 volunteer teachers who have taken turns since mid-March to provide lessons at school, in addition to the virtual class. "We knew there would be need for teachers to teach," says this teacher in an elementary school in the 19th arrondissement of Paris. I was not ready to stay at home. So the first week, he finds himself in front of a multi-level kindergarten class in a school close to his. “The job of teaching kindergarten and elementary school is not the same. It took a lot of adaptation, but it was very rewarding. "

After a week, the groups being larger and the teachers more numerous, Charles-Antoine found CP, CE1, CE2. But none of his students. “In the morning, we do the work that each teacher has sent in the form of individual help, until recess. Then, we try to do joint activities of plastic art, music, reading. "

"My daughters felt privileged"

And for the students, was this period anxious and this unpleasant "special case"? "I feel like it slips on most of them," says the teacher. It is quite normal for them, they play, they chat, they are not traumatized. If each case is specific, for Carla, a nurse like her companion in Val-de-Marne and mother of Charline, 9 years old and Joanna, 8 years old, this period was not badly lived.

“At first, I was in favor of putting them in school as little as possible. I quickly became convinced of the opposite. They are happier like that. And we both work in the hospital, so there was a big risk of getting the coronavirus. Besides, I was infected. And I have been in quarantine with them for two weeks. "

Her daughters used to go to school four days a week. Carla salutes the good organization and responsiveness of her establishment (private under contract) which, from Monday March 16, offered to receive her daughters every day. "They always had the same group of nine elementary children," says Carla. It is reassuring to avoid multiplying the possibilities of contamination and nice for them. It was comforting to be with children who were going through the same thing. They felt privileged. Caregivers' children have been disadvantaged because their parents take a risk, are tired from work. But in reality, it was compensated by the fact of being taken care of by volunteers, doing activities in small groups, gardening or preparing cookies. They could enjoy a large space too. "

And access to a computer, a precious commodity in these times of virtual educational continuity ... A relief for this nurse, who has no illusions. “We work just in time, there are a lot of caregiver couples like us. It would have been catastrophic for hospitals if the school had not been opened for our children. "

How many of these children, whose parents spent the day in the hospital and who stayed in the community, were infected? The Ministry of National Education does not have this figure. But the most recent studies show that children are ultimately only a few vectors of the virus. 

What will deconfinement change?

The return to school, from this week, will not change much for these teachers and children who have continued their education in the walls. With a few details ... First, the teachers will find their students. “During confinement, we are not thinking about an activity that will suit a group because we do not know these students, but in the pure teaching of homework imagined by colleagues. For me, it's not daycare, it's more about supervision. "

The students, too, will go back to their school, their class, their teacher and a few classmates. But what risks complicating and modifying their reference points a little, are the health instructions unveiled by the National Education: wearing of the compulsory mask for teachers (good luck explaining the instructions and doing discipline), distance from a meter to be respected everywhere, even in the toilets, contact sports prohibited, as is the exchange of games…

In Bordeaux, teams are preparing the school playground to receive students during the deconfinement. - UGO AMEZ / SIPA

Some measures have gradually been put in place: “We wash the hands of children before and after recess, before and after lunch,” says Charles-Antoine. Kindergartens are told to use one pencil all day. And we start to install the marking on the ground to queue in front of the toilet. But we have the impression that the catalog of 63 pages of measures applies to robots, but we have children from 6 to 10 years old in elementary school. Who hear something and do the opposite… ”And these constraints, reinforced, will take much longer if the classes go from 5 to 15 students.

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Same dubious air on Carla's side. If certain habits had changed a little during confinement, everyday life was not turned upside down. For example, for the meal, her daughters ate their picnic, cold or warm, on a table alone and not side by side. "But the children continued to play normally at recess!" My daughtersare in a little cocoon, pampered for the moment. They will end up with a lot of constraints. I don't see how teachers can hold it. For example, are they supposed to leave their class to accompany each student to the bathroom to wash their hands? How would you ask children under the age of 10 not to be in contact? "

Is this the setting for a "Experts" crime scene or a classroom? You have 4 hours. pic.twitter.com/eRTGI7vRP1

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• Confinement
• Coronavirus
• Society
• Deconfinement
• public school
• National Education
• Education
• Child
• Health