Until now, schoolchildren from CP to CM2 had to wear the mask in 61 departments.

All of France is now concerned.

"All departments are going to level 2 of the health protocol" on Monday, with "wearing a mask again for all students" in elementary school, the Ministry of National Education announced on November 9, following the intervention by President Emmanuel Macron.

This generalization of the wearing of a mask marks a step backwards.

The government announced in September the end of wearing masks in primary school in the departments least affected by the epidemic.

At the beginning of October, 47 departments had been able to remove it, followed by others in the following weeks.

In total, the wearing of masks at school had been lifted before the All Saints holidays in 79 departments, before coming back in force with the resumption of the Covid-19 epidemic.

Covid-19: wearing a mask in primary Kenan AUGEARD AFP / Archives

Since the return from the All Saints holidays a week ago, students from CP to CM2 have put back the mask in 39 metropolitan departments where they had removed it as well as in Reunion, bringing to 57 metropolitan departments and four overseas the number of communities where it was mandatory.

Faced with the epidemic rebound, Emmanuel Macron spoke to the French on November 9, notably putting pressure on seniors to be injected with a booster dose, on pain of losing their health pass.

"The fifth wave has started in Europe, in the United Kingdom, in Germany, where more than 30,000 new additional cases are recorded every day", noted the head of state, who argued a "situation in France more favorable "but a 40% increase in the incidence rate in one week.

Regarding the school, the Head of State said that "even if (he) knows how difficult it is, the wearing of a mask at school will therefore be maintained for the moment".

President Emmanuel Macron's televised address on November 9, 2021 Christophe ARCHAMBAULT AFP / Archives

"Close as few classes as possible"

On the ground, this new change of course is welcomed between "fatalism" and "satisfaction".

"There is on the part of the teachers a certain fatalism, an exhaustion or even an exasperation in the way in which the messages of the government are transmitted. Tuesday, following the speech of Mr. Macron, nobody really understood that the mask was restored everywhere ", regrets Stéphane Crochet, secretary general of SE-Unsa.

For Catherine Nave-Bekhti, secretary general of Sgen-CFDT, this new measure seems above all "reasonable".

"It is a satisfaction because it is a coherent precautionary measure in the face of the dynamics of the epidemic".

Wearing a mask is compulsory again in elementary school from Monday throughout France FREDERICK FLORIN AFP / Archives

"The goal is always to close as few classes as possible and prevent the epidemic from getting carried away, at school and elsewhere," she underlines.

For Guislaine David, general secretary of Snuipp-FSU, the first primary school union, the passage of all departments to level 2 of the protocol is a "precautionary measure for wearing a mask" but also means "the return to non-mixing. on extracurricular time or in the canteen ".

"It's a real headache in many schools, especially when it comes to organizing recess," adds Stéphane Crochet.

Guislaine David also points to the question "of the acceptance of the mask by certain families which, in places, is increasingly difficult", she assures us.

"By dint of back and forth from the protocol, we are faced with some anti-mask parents".

In addition, at the beginning of last week, the Constitutional Council censored the controversial access of school directors to the vaccination status of students.

The Sages considered that the provisions on the school component of the bill "health vigilance", adopted by the Parliament, carried a "disproportionate infringement of the right to respect for private life".

© 2021 AFP