After more than three months of closure due to coronavirus, that's it: schools and colleges will reopen to all school children from June 22. This is one of the main announcements made by the President of the Republic during his address Sunday evening from the Élysée Palace. In his speech, Emmanuel Macron indicated that the presence of pupils would be "compulsory", in contradiction with the health protocol currently in force which allows the reception of only fifteen pupils maximum per class in primary school.
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"There is no question of throwing in the trash all the rules and barrier gestures"
On the side of the entourage of the Minister of National Education, we are trying to alleviate the fears of teachers who could again find themselves in front of thirty students in a week. "There is no question of throwing in the trash all the rules and barrier gestures, do we slip on the side of the rue de Grenelle, but it will be necessary to loosen the distances".
So the rule of four square meters of space per child is over? Possibly, but we do not yet know what the new distances will be between each student. What worries Francette Popineau, spokesperson for SNUipp-FSU. "How do we articulate all this?" she wonders at our microphone. "How do we get children back while maintaining the distance, since the president himself reminded that it was important to respect distances?"
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"We are still waiting for a lot of details"
Jean-Michel Blanquer, who will be the guest of Europe 1 from 8:15 am, will receive the trade unions on Monday to discuss these reductions. There may be a few small group classes left when the classrooms are too small. The wearing of masks for teachers should be maintained, as well as traffic rules.
But the teachers, they remain expectant. "We are still waiting for a lot of details on the simplified health protocol", explains to the microphone of Europe 1 Stéphane Crochet, general secretary SE-Unsa, who recalls that the face-to-face school will only last two weeks.
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In high schools, the health protocol will remain the same. Recent epidemiological studies have shown a greater risk of contamination in adolescents: no question therefore of hastening recovery for high school students.