- Families and businesses want to speed up the return of children to school.
- This would only be possible by lightening the health rules currently in force at school.
- Matignon will decide; perhaps before phase 3 of the deconfinement, which will start on June 22.
It's a little music that we hear more and more in recent days. Several voices are calling for the noose to be loosened on the schools. The President of the Scientific Council, Jean-François Delfraissy, thus declared himself favorable in the Sunday Journal for health rules to be lightened by the end of June at school, in particular for “meals, recreation or sport. "
A possibility that Jean-Michel Blanquer is also considering. On Saturday, he spoke at a press conference about the possibility of "easing the health protocol during the month of June". Because the Minister of Education wants as many students as possible to be able to sit on the school benches before September: "I am the lawyer back to school", he insisted. Moreover, the instruction was given in the schools to allow a maximum of pupils to return, even if it means accelerating their rotation. For the moment, only 1.8 million pupils - out of a total of 6.7 million - have returned to school, but rarely on a full-time basis. In college, there are 600,000 out of 3.3 million.
Pressure from employers intensifies
The question of a more massive return to class has been raised all the more since last week. A study by the French Pediatric Society made public on Thursday showed that children are less contagious to the coronavirus than adults. On the other hand, while many parents were reluctant to send their children back to school on May 11, they may be less so today. And the returned pupils expressed their satisfaction: "Going back to school sounds a bit like coming back to real life for them and they feel it very positively", confirms Francette Popineau, secretary general of SNUipp-Fsu.
Pressure is also felt on the corporate side, with employers encouraging employees to return to work on site. "When we see the figures for the epidemic and admissions to the emergency services which are declining very sharply, we wonder if we can not already tell us what we can hope for on June 22 and perhaps before" , declared on Monday François Asselin, the president of the Confederation of Small and Medium Enterprises (CPME). Same story with Laurent Berger, the general secretary of the CFDT: for him the few children welcomed at school disturbs the "workers and puts them in sometimes difficult situations".
Véran is more cautious
But on the side of the teachers' unions, if we wish to lighten the protocol in absolute terms, caution is still required. “You shouldn't get carried away. Because if the study of the French pediatric society is encouraging, that of Professor Drosten estimates that 30% of children have a viral load sufficient to transmit the virus. In addition, we cannot ask the teaching teams to change their organization every four mornings, because that requires time and a lot of communication efforts with families, ”says Francette Popineau.
Nor do all ministers in the government seem to be on the same line. We must not "go too fast" to relax measures to control the Covid-19 epidemic, even if "the situation continues to improve", pleaded Monday the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran. "The situation has improved and continues to improve (but) it is too early to in any way relax our vigilance," he added.
The long-awaited Matignon decision
For the moment, the executive decision does not seem final. “Discussions are underway between the Scientific Council, the High Authority for Health and the government. It is Matignon who will decide ”, explains to 20 Minutes , the entourage of Jean-Michel Blanquer. The minimum option could be to lighten the instructions for activities outside the classroom. And the most ambitious, would be to authorize a larger number of pupils to follow the lessons by modifying the rules of distancing. "The solution could also be to further lighten the health regulations in the regions least affected by the virus," said rue de Grenelle.
If we know that the Prime Minister will speak to announce phase 3 of the deconfinement that will start on June 22, he could make announcements before if the health protocol is loosened in schools. "And between the announcement of the decision and the implementation of the new rules, it will take three or four days minimum," said the entourage of the minister. The summer holidays being fixed for July 4, this possible loosening of the sanitary rules would therefore have an effect only for a few weeks at most. Which would not be of great educational interest. "But it would be important psychologically for the students, because they could find their comrades and their teachers, even for a few days and close this complicated session," insists the ministry.
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