Invited to the antenna of Franceinfo, Thursday, December 16, Jean-Michel Blanquer was asked about the issue of saliva detection tests for Covid-19 in primary school.
According to the Minister of National Education, the government does “only 200,000 out of the 400,000 [proposed]” because “only 50%” of parents accept them.
If these figures are more in line with the trends of recent weeks, they are not explained as simply as the minister claims.
Are parents of elementary school students to blame for the upsurge in Covid-19 cases at school?
This is what the Minister of National Education suggested during his visit to Franceinfo, Thursday, December 16.
While he was reminded of the recommendation of the Scientific Council to "generalize the [saliva] tests once a week at school", Jean-Michel Blanquer referred to the two "experiments" launched by his ministry in recent months, before add: “Until today, and even today, […] we offer 400,000 saliva tests every week in primary school.
We are only doing 200,000 out of the 400,000 we are offering because we only have 50% parent acceptance.
"
"So the type of experimentation proposed, [which means that] it is at school that things happen, inevitably comes up against a not insignificant percentage of parents who do not want it to be done at school. », Concluded the Minister.
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, the National Education indicates that the number of saliva tests on which the minister relies "is communicated every Friday as part of a situation update", from "feedback from academies".
Thus, according to the latest report to date, covering the week of November 29 to December 6, 470,841 tests had been offered to "students and staff" - not only, therefore, to schoolchildren - and 241,583 tests carried out in total.
A ratio comparable to the results of previous weeks: 434,816 tests proposed for 227,717 carried out between 22 and 29 November, 377. 411 tests proposed for 190,487 carried out between 15 and 22 November, or even 307,804 tests proposed for 141,686 carried out between 8 and November 15 (with a public holiday).
"A lack of equipment and personnel to test"
However, is the acceptance rate of the tests put forward by the Minister explained solely by the refusal of the parents of the students? “As authorization is requested from parents, children must provide them with the form and then bring it back to school, which often poses practical difficulties: either the child leaves it in his satchel and forgets it, or he gives but his parents are overwhelmed and say to themselves that they will fill it out but not right away… And, sometimes, the parents do not fill it because they don't have time to think about the question ”, details Guislaine David, co-secretary general and spokesperson for the SNUipp-FSU teachers' union.
“All this makes the return of the form very long.
Sometimes the tests [of the students whose parents have accepted] take place while all the parents have not had time to answer ", she continues, stressing, according to feedback from the field, that" there are also parents who do not want to test their child for fear that it will be positive and therefore kept at home for seven days ”.
For Laurent Zameczkowski, vice-president of the Federation of Parents of Public Service Students (Peep), "it is unacceptable that [Jean-Michel Blanquer] is discarding the parents when there is a lack of material and of staff to test.
"
An initial objective of 600,000 tests per week
“Initially, the minister announced 600,000 tests per week [a target still mentioned on the ministry's website], so there is already a problem!
Yes, some parents refuse the tests, and the administrative burden - since it is also necessary to provide a photocopy of his vital card -, can explain this reluctance.
But to assert that 50% of refusals come from parents is totally false, we are very far from this percentage, ”adds the vice-president of Peep.
Like him, Guislaine David believes that Jean-Michel Blanquer is wrong to “lay the blame on the parents”: “There has never been a communication campaign on the value of saliva tests at school!
We have been calling for this measure from the start because we know that such prevention initiatives work well for some parents.
"
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