The speech of Emmanuel Macron left many parents in uncertainty. By announcing Monday evening the gradual reopening of schools from May 11, date of the possible end of confinement, the President of the Republic has already attracted criticism from some unions but also families. The latter are concerned about the lack of details and health guarantees, while the coronavirus continues to spread, and could find in these establishments important foci of contamination.
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"How are they going to organize this," wonders Sophia, mother of three. "Are the children going to be tested before being put back into the community? How are they going to be able to enforce the barrier measures?". In the absence of clear answers from the executive, some parents have already decided not to return their children to school, like Lucile, whose two teenagers will stay at home until September.
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"I cannot put my children in school if I am not sure that there is no risk for them or for us", she explains to Europe 1. "What is our use for? protection if, in the evening, the children return and can contaminate us? "
Some families "will have no choice"
But all families, although worried, cannot afford this luxury, recalls Alix Rivière, co-president of the Federation of parents of students of Seine-Saint-Denis. According to her, parents who decide to put their children back in school will do so because they "will have no choice". And to continue: "I am thinking of allophone children confined with their parents, and who only speak their mother tongue. They no longer have access to French as fluently as usual. I also think of children who are dropping out of school , and for whom it will be very complex to go back to school. The sooner the better. "
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Tuesday evening, on France 2, the Minister of Education Jean-Michel Blanquer tried to reassure parents, saying "open to flexible formulas", adapted to each student, and promising a case-by-case management of the problem . As for the possibility, for the parents, not to put their child back in school, the minister estimated that "that is discussed", while repeating that the objective of the executive, by reopening the classrooms, was first of all "social". "We have to bring the children away from school back to school. We have students off the radar. Sometimes that means serious eating problems, violence at home. We have to fix it," he explained.