- In France, the government has decided: the mask will be compulsory at school for all children at least 11 years old.
- As the start of the school year approaches, the question of cost arises. The state refuses to put its hand in the pocket, causing debate and indignation.
In addition to a red binder 34 x 22 centimeters with mandatory yellow dividers and a criterium whose mine breaks from the first week of class, the parents of schoolchildren in France have seen an addition of size in their list of supplies for the back to school: masks, and in a significant number since they will be compulsory each day of lessons for children over 11 years old.
The debate did not take long to emerge: given the cost of a mask, is it a simple supply in the same way as the protractor or the rainbow colored pencils or can the State not put your hand in your pocket by financing compulsory masks for schoolchildren? Despite the demands of elected officials from all sides (from the Republican Eric Ciotti to the rebels), the government has been rather clear on this, Emmanuel Macron announcing that the French taxpayer did not have to pay for everyone's masks.
The cost of masks severely penalizes the most vulnerable populations.
To guarantee its equal access to all and the generalization of its use I call for its free https://t.co/MNRcsxCsAL
Equity and efficiency at half mast
A firm announcement as he knows so well how to launch them on the fly, but largely insufficient to put an end to the debate. Especially when neighboring Switzerland offers masks to its students for example. At Frédérique Rolet, spokesperson for SNES-FSU (National Union of Secondary Education), we place ourselves more on the Swiss side than the tricolor rooster: "We must make the mask free in the classes, because otherwise we will create an inequity huge between families according to income, where public school is supposed to represent equal opportunities. "On this subject, she brushes aside the argument put forward by Jean-Michel Blanquer, Minister of Education, namely that the increase in the 2020 intake allowance will be used to pay for the masks:" I was very surprised of this speech. The masks are not intended to be renewed in the following years, while the increase in the allowance returned does. Are we going to reduce it again once the masks are obsolete? "
As a reminder, the National Association of Consumers and Users estimated that, for an average-sized family, the monthly expenditure on surgical masks "can go up to 228 euros". With such an invoice, Frédérique Rolet is worried about the ineffectiveness of badly used masks. We all have around us, when it is not ourselves, people who reuse their ephemeral mask - supposed to last four hours - several days in a row, when they are not masks shared between several people or even tinkered with. “If we claim that the masks last four hours, that's three masks per child per day. With such a cost, we fear possible misappropriation or misuse to reduce costs. The only way to ensure that the masks are worn correctly, and therefore to limit the epidemic, is to make them free, ”she says.
Historical debate
But why demand that they be free more in school than elsewhere - even if demands for no-cost masks everywhere exist? Historically, demand is not new, recalls for us Claude Lelièvre, education historian: “Initially, Jules Ferry only eliminated the cost of teachers, it was then that the questions of supplies gradually arose. , textbooks - now paid for by local authorities -, the canteen, etc. The free access to everything that surrounds public schools in France has frequently been debated since the 1880s and compulsory education. "
Discussions always put back on the table because of a historical misunderstanding according to Claude Lelièvre: “There is a confusion between compulsory school and free school. We fantasize about a compulsory, free, secular school as one of our current foundations, when it is education that is compulsory - and not schooling, and that the latter has always had a cost for individuals. "This request for free masks is therefore part of a much larger trend:" This does not mean that it should not be done, defends the historian who remains neutral before us on the question. However, the school has already shown that it can make many things compulsory within it without funding them. "
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