- As the new school year approaches in France, Jean-Michel Blanquer wanted to be reassuring on the antenna of RMC-BFMTV, Monday, August 24.
- For the Minister of Education, the health protocol in force in establishments in France is among "the strictest in Europe".
- 20 Minutes wanted to verify this statement, by delving into the various measures planned in the rest of Europe.
"Create good conditions for the start of the school year for all": this is the objective pursued by Jean-Michel Blanquer, as the resumption of classes approaches, on September 1, during a period of coronavirus.
Guest of the program "Apolline Matin" on RMC-BFMTV, Monday August 24, the Minister of National Education wanted to be reassuring about the conditions of reception of the pupils: "We have one of the most stringent health protocols of “Europe”, he said in particular, without going into the details of these measures.
The "main principles of the start of the 2020 school year" are however recalled on the National Education website: "Respect for barrier gestures, wearing a mask for adults and for students over 11 years old [when a distance from a meter cannot be guaranteed], hand hygiene, cleaning and ventilation of the premises ”.
For all that, is France one of the European states providing for the most stringent measures against Covid-19 in schools? Germany, Italy, Spain , Poland, Belgium, Greece, United Kingdom… Overview of several neighboring countries of France.
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If social distancing and regular hand washing are the norm in schools in all these countries, the health protocol varies greatly on the issue of wearing a mask, sometimes compulsory throughout the country, in certain regions, or else only in certain spaces.
Variable rules within the same country
The instructions sometimes vary even at the local level, in Spain for example. While the national recommendations adopted in June recommend that Spanish schools make the mask compulsory in secondary education only - and from the age of 6 in school transport -, the 17 autonomous communities of the country remain the only ones competent in matter.
“Rather than a new school year, we should talk about 17 different school starts,” notes Courrier international , while the autonomous community of Madrid has for example suggested, faced with the recent upsurge in the number of cases in the region, that the physical re-entry could be abandoned in favor of a remote re-entry.
On the other side of the Rhine, where students resumed lessons in mid-August, some federal states favor lessons outside, while others modify the lesson schedules to avoid as much as possible that the classes do not intersect. In some cases, the mask is compulsory only in the hallways, while it is also compulsory in the classroom in other regions.
In Belgium, the protocol varies depending on the level of spread of the virus. In primary and nursery schools, under the "yellow code" planned for the start of the school year, only adults must respect a distance of 1.5 meters between them and wear a mask if it is impossible to stand far enough. In secondary education, on the other hand, the mask must be worn by everyone if distancing is not possible - including by teachers when they "speak out loud" during lessons.
Greece and Italy, best students of health rules
Greece is one of the countries which have adopted the most stringent measures since wearing a mask is compulsory at all times for pupils (from primary to higher education) as well as for teachers and staff. This measure has even been compared by the Minister of Education, Niki Kermaéos, to “obvious” precautions in everyday life, such as wearing a seat belt in the car or being vaccinated. The wearing of a mask is therefore more extensive there than in France.
Same thing on the other side of the Alps. After considering a time to allow students to remove their masks when they are in their place, Italy, where the start of the school year is scheduled for September 14, has also adopted a strict protocol. The mask is compulsory from 6 years old, including in class. Students showing potential symptoms of Covid-19 are also subject to isolation and care by a member of staff before being evacuated and then tested.
While Polish students are not obliged to wear a mask in class, schools benefit from a significant margin of maneuver depending on the local evolution of the epidemic: adaptation of timetables to limit traffic flows, compulsory wearing of a mask for adults and students in the corridors ...
Finally, in the United Kingdom, in addition to encouraging students potentially sick with Covid-19 to stay at home - as in France and other European countries - and standard social distancing measures, teachers are invited to keep maximum the same children in an identical small group. In the absence of an obligation to wear a mask in middle and high school - except in Scotland and in some schools - a union of school principals has asked the government for clarification on whether pupils wishing to wear themselves masks are allowed.
"Few outbreaks of epidemics in schools"
However, if Jean-François Delfraissy, President of the Scientific Council, has already warned that “there will be contaminations at school” but that these would be “managed”, the European Center for Prevention and disease control qualifies the idea that the school environment is a more dangerous space than other daily gathering places.
"There are few outbreaks of Covid-19 in schools, mainly because the majority of children do not show symptoms when they are infected with the virus, or because they contract a very mild form of the disease," recalls he in particular. Thus, while some establishments have already had to temporarily close in Germany because of confirmed cases of Covid-19, the tests carried out over the past two weeks show that none of them is the cause of these contaminations, those - this having taken place outside the school framework.
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