Classes closed, overwhelmed parents, angry teachers ... Faced with an eventful return to school due to a new epidemic wave of Covid-19, Jean Castex announced on Monday a relaxation of the health protocol in schools.
Guest of the 20 hours news from France 2, the Prime Minister reaffirmed the government's objective "to keep schools open as much as possible".
Self-tests and single certificate on honor
"Indeed we see these queues, I am a father, I can see what is happening", underlined the Prime Minister while defending "answers of simplification" while parents of pupils and teachers are on the teeth since the start of the school year and that a strike is looming on the horizon as of Thursday.
First evolution of the protocol which comes into force on Tuesday: parents will no longer have to pick up their child immediately after they have been in contact, but at the end of the course.
Then, whereas previously, each student identified as a contact case had to immediately undergo a PCR or antigen test, a simple self-test, which must be repeated on D + 2 and D + 4, must be performed.
The head of government also specified that a single certificate of honor, certifying that the first self-test is negative, would be sufficient for a return in progress.
The three self-tests will be free, thanks to a certificate issued by the school.
But they will continue to be distributed only in pharmacies.
Eleven million new kits must be delivered during the week.
10,453 closed classes
While pharmacies and laboratories are crumbling under nasopharyngeal swabs, around 1.5 million each day, Jean Castex has however refused to modify French doctrine by defending this policy of massive tests, the abandonment of which would amount to "breaking the thermometer" .
“There were 10,453 classes closed today, that's a lot, but at the same time it's only 2%.
We are not closing the schools or the country, ”he insisted.
The first reaction from Guislaine David, general secretary of Snuipp-FSU, the first primary school union, was very fresh: “It's total contempt for the teachers who are in the field.
This reduction will not at all reduce the number of contaminations at school, on the contrary, it will increase them tenfold.
Because now all you need is a certificate on the honor of the parents, ”she lamented.
The Prime Minister's televised intervention appeared as an attempt to calm the smoldering fire among teachers and parents of students, as much as a new setback for the Minister of National Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, since weakened the beginning of the year.
The previous protocol, announced only the day before the return to school on January 3 in the press, had been criticized for its complexity.
Strike on January 13
Denouncing "an indescribable mess" in schools and "a strong feeling of abandonment and anger among the staff", the Snuipp-FSU called for a national strike for Thursday, January 13 "to obtain the conditions of a school secured under Omicron ”, joined by most of the other teachers' unions, SE-Unsa, Snes-FSU, Snalc, CGT Educ'action, SUD Education, FO and CFDT.
"Parents become goats", argued the vice-president of the federation of parents of pupils Peep, Laurent Zameczkowski, deploring "tests and pharmacies taken by storm".
Jean-Michel Blanquer tried to make amends, Friday, by recognizing a protocol "extremely difficult" to live for families and, "here and there, out of stock of self-tests" in pharmacies, but that "normally, they are re-supplied ”.
However, there have been many hiccups testimonies for several days: "Parents' feedback is that there has been a big mess in the application of the new protocol", even if they "do not want schools to be closed ”, noted Patrick Salaün, president of Unaape (National Union of Autonomous Associations of Parents of Students).
Blaner strongly criticized
Haro versus Blanquer?
The minister is - in private - criticized even within the macronie, some wondering about a bravado attitude now perceived as a form of stubbornness,
This Monday evening during a trip to the Alpes-Maritimes, before the intervention of the Prime Minister, Emmanuel Macron recognized "a very difficult situation for everyone", calling for "to show solidarity, commitment and requirement ”.
Politics
Coronavirus: Surgical masks distributed "to teachers" by the end of January, announces the government
Society
Coronavirus: Faced with an "indescribable mess", most teachers' unions call for a strike Thursday, January 13
Covid 19
Coronavirus
Jean Castex
school
Back to school
Society
Primary school
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