In a nursery school (illustration).

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WITT / SIPA

With the third wave of the health crisis, times are difficult in National Education.

The school, which has escaped the latest restrictions, "functions as it can" in areas under stress, but for how long?

Despite the context, keeping schools open remains a priority for the government.

To justify this strategy, the Minister of Education keeps repeating: "we contaminate ourselves less at school than in the rest of society".

Sharp increase in cases

Problem: In recent weeks, positive cases among students and teachers and class closures have increased.

According to the first reports of saliva tests deployed for three weeks, “0.35% to 0.5%” of children are positive, according to Jean-Michel Blanquer, who considers this rate “contained”.

Despite a sharp increase in the number of cases among students from 9,000 to 15,000 in one week, with 2,018 classes closed.

On the ground, the grumbling of teachers is starting to be heard, especially in Seine-Saint-Denis, a department where the incidence rate is the highest in France.

“We operate as best we can […] impossible to respect the distance of one meter in class, for example,” says a professor at Claude-Debussy college in Aulnay-sous-Bois.

In this establishment, out of a teaching team of 101 people, 62 are absent.

The situation "is unfortunately critical in a large number of primary or secondary schools, where a school has been offered at a discount for months," points out Rodrigo Arenas, co-president of the main federation of parents of students, the FCPE.

"With the vaccination of teachers, saliva tests are a key element in breaking the chains of contamination while the government is waiting?

“Asks Stéphane Crochet, secretary general of SE-Unsa.

The first tests, however, were not always effective.

A teacher from Argenteuil in Val-d'Oise recounts that “some children tested received positive results… a week after having carried them out”.

The college problem

Gathered by the ministry for a health point on Tuesday, the unions demanded "strong and protective measures to allow schools to be kept open".

"Let us close immediately one or two weeks where the Covid explodes rather than closing all the schools for three or four months", suggests Stéphane Crochet.

The unions also point to the "very complicated" health situation in colleges and ask for the application of the half-class in the establishments of the 16 departments concerned by the reconfinement.

The Minister of National Education will therefore have to review his copy.

Especially since in his own camp not all seem completely inclined to support him with their eyes closed.

According to a government source, Jean-Michel Blanquer is indeed “in denial of what is happening in schools”.

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