Why is the health protocol not yet reinforced in college?

At the college la grange aux belles in Paris, November 2, 2020. -

• For Jean-Michel Blanquer, it is out of the question to send schoolchildren part of the time home to follow distance learning courses in order to limit the risk of coronavirus contamination.

• Because according to him, the population density is lower in middle school than in high school and “younger” students pose “fewer contamination problems”.

• Arguments that the Snes-Fsu refutes, which still calls for a strike next Tuesday, so that new measures are taken for the colleges.

College staff will inevitably ogle what is happening in high schools ... Faced with the worsening of the coronavirus epidemic and a fairly sharp grumbling in high schools since the beginning of the week, the Minister of Education announced Thursday a further strengthening of the health protocol in high school.

The distancing measures in force since the start of the school year “are obviously more difficult to apply in high school, where student movements are more numerous and more frequent, and the organization of school catering more complex.

Because of the age of the students, the size of the establishments and their organization, the risks are potentially greater, ”recognizes Jean-Michel Blanquer in a letter sent Thursday to school heads.

"It is now necessary that each high school establish a pedagogical continuity plan, implemented until the next school holidays, which guarantees at least 50% of face-to-face teaching for each student", he asks.

But each establishment can organize itself as it wishes, favoring "reception in half-groups", "reception by level" or "remote work one or two days a week", he explains.

"The college remains organized with 100% presence"

Announcements that were welcomed by the teachers' unions, but the Snes-Fsu and Snalc maintained the call for a "health strike" for Tuesday in the first and second degree.

In particular to ask that a strengthening of measures also be adopted in colleges.

Since the start of the week, several colleges have been in the grip of strike movements in particular because teachers do not feel safe.

Example at the Guillaume-Budé college in Paris, some teachers of which were on strike Thursday, they complain of "a strong mix in all the living spaces of the college: refectory, but also playground, corridors, surroundings of the college ... ".

They also criticize the fact that "disinfection has never been done at most once a day in the entire establishment", for lack of resources and staff, they explain in a press release.

They also note that the pupils do not always change their masks and that they “take them off regularly”.

But for Jean-Michel Blanquer, out of the question to send schoolchildren part of the time home to follow distance learning.

"With very specific exceptions, the college remains organized in 100% presence", he hammered this Friday on RTL.

"The situation of the college is very different from that of the high school", he justified.

In these establishments, it is "easier" to keep the pupils in a single class, because they do not have any special education as in high school.

“In middle school, students are on average 26 per class, against 30 in high school”.

The pupils there are "younger", pose according to him "less problems of contamination", and the density of the colleges is "in general less strong" than that of the high schools.

What Philippe Vincent, general secretary of SNPDEN, the main union of school heads, observes: "In middle school, students are on average 26 per class, against 30 in high school, sometimes 35".

If the minister said this Friday that 3,528 students have tested positive for Covid-19 during the last 4 days and 1,165 staff, he did not

by level.

Questioned by

, the Ministry of Education declares that it does not have the figures for contaminations at the college.

However, in its note of October 26, the Scientific Council does not differentiate between middle school and high school students in terms of contagiousness.

“Adolescents aged 12 to 18 seem to have the same susceptibility to the virus and the same contagiousness to those around them as adults.

However, they are less severe forms of the disease compared to adults, with a proportion of asymptomatic forms around 50% ”, we can read.

The reduction of programs also arises

Distancing college students for part of their lessons would also pose other concerns.

More employees work on site than during the first confinement (due in particular to the opening of administrations, schools, etc.), so that college students would be likely to remain alone at home on certain days.

“However, parents of 6th grade students sometimes judge their children to be too young and not independent enough for that,” says Claire Krepper, deputy general secretary of the SE-Unsa teachers' union.

This would further complicate life for businesses and administrations.

Voices are also calling for a reduction in college programs: "We must adapt the end-of-year expectations to adapt to an exceptional year at all levels of education", claims the

Sgen-CFDT

in a press release published this Friday.

The question of modifying the patent exams, to take into account the fact that the college students did not have time to tackle the whole program due to the delay taken at the beginning of the year to revise concepts, arises as well.

It remains to be seen whether the pressure will increase in the coming days in the colleges and push the minister to change gear again.

Society

Coronavirus: In high schools, anger is mounting at the health protocol deemed weak ... And it is far from over

Society

Coronavirus: How will the bac exams be reorganized due to the health situation?

• Health

• Middle School

• Covid 19

• Society

• Coronavirus

• Education