From Corsica to Morbihan, from Haut-Rhin to Oise, many schools and nurseries will be closed, from Monday, and for two weeks. A decision taken to curb the epidemic of coronavirus, but which poses undeniable logistical problems. What will children and adolescents thus confined to their homes do? How to organize to keep them? So that they do not fall too far behind in their school program? Europe 1 takes stock.
Over 300,000 students affected
These closings of establishments were decided, according to the Ministry of National Education, to "avoid the grouping of children and adolescents who are difficult to strictly enforce barrier gestures". On the other hand, the teachers will still be able to meet, just like the class councils.
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In total, more than 300,000 students are affected out of the 12 million school children from kindergarten to high school. We must add the very young who had a place in the nurseries now closed. About 45,000 students, mainly in the Oise and Morbihan regions, two of the centers of the epidemic in France, were already concerned by the closings of their establishments. In addition, as of Monday, all the others in the Oise (165,000 students in total depending on the rectorate) and 127,000 in the Haut-Rhin, departments where all of the schools, colleges and high schools (in addition to crèches) will be closed for at least two weeks.
In Corsica, in Ajaccio, a city now considered a "cluster", the closure of schools, decided on Sunday evening, will concern around 10,000 students. In zone A (Besançon, Bordeaux, Clermont-Ferrand, Dijon, Grenoble, Limoges, Lyon, Poitiers academies), the last to return after the winter holidays, more than a million students are preparing Monday to go back to school, with the exception of those of Balme-de-Sillingy, a coronavirus outbreak in Haute-Savoie where the establishments will remain closed until March 14.
Distance courses
To ensure educational continuity despite the closings of educational establishments decided in the Oise, Haut-Rhin and certain outbreaks of the new coronavirus, the Ministry of Education has provided for distance education. First, the resources of Cned, the National Center for Distance Education, whose platform "My class at home" has two components.
The first offers, from the main section to the final year, exercises which relate to the programs of the first and second trimesters. Each day, for a cumulative total of a few hours divided into several sessions, the student can revise the concepts already learned. A questionnaire makes it possible to adapt the exercises to each person's level. The second part is a "virtual class", where the teacher can teach his students by videoconference. Connections are possible by computer, tablet or telephone.
According to the Ministry of Education, the "My classroom at home" platform can support 6 million simultaneous connections. It has already been used by around 2,000 students from French high schools in Asia (mainly in China) for several weeks. The other tool available is called ENT (Digital Workspaces). These are intranets specific to each establishment, a system generalized in the second degree but not widespread in the first. Students and teachers can exchange lessons, exercises and messages.
Only temporary arrangements
"Each teacher decides on the tools he uses" and how he arranges them, indicates the Ministry of National Education, the idea being to alternate work in autonomy (exercises) and supported work (virtual class). "There will be many parties where the students will be independent" or, for the youngest, with their parents, warns AFP Frédéric Marchand, general secretary of the Unsa-Education union. The system is obviously based on the goodwill of students and parents, since teachers cannot force them to do the exercises or attend the "virtual class".
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In addition, the exercises "only allow to revise", according to Francette Popineau, co-secretary general and spokesperson for the SNUipp-FSU union (primary). "To approach new concepts, we need educational support that cannot be asked of families. They do not have the skill, patience or availability," she adds, warning of a risk of " increase social inequalities. " "Teachers must be trained in software, and in any case nothing can replace physical presence in the classroom. It is the accompaniment, the interactions with friends, the life of a class that makes you learn."
These devices can therefore only be temporary. "It should not last too long, especially for classes that have exams at the end of the year, who cannot afford to be too late," explains Frédérique Rolet, co-secretary general of Snes-FSU ( secondary). The ministry agrees: "If (the closings of establishments) are going to last, it will be necessary to think of other solutions."
The obligation for parents to find a form of care
Distance learning or not, many students, not counting young children out of nurseries, will have to be looked after. And perhaps this is where the biggest troubles start for parents. Calling a nanny generates costs, grandparents worry, the elderly are particularly exposed to the coronavirus.
For those who have no other solution, it will be necessary to stay at home with their offspring. Employees can request telework or file an emergency work stoppage. This is compensated for a period of 14 days. To benefit from this, the employer must complete a form accessible on the Social Security website, declare.ameli.fr. Only parents of children under the age of 16, who have no possibility of teleworking, and whose child is schooled in a municipality affected by containment measures, are eligible for this service. Furthermore, the latter is only accessible to one of the two parents.