A kindergarten class (illustration). – ISA HARSIN / SIPA
As the start of the school year approaches, teachers’ unions are stepping up to the plate. They are waiting for clear measures before the resumption of classes on Monday which will take place face-to-face in primary and at a distance for one more week in colleges and high schools.
To make their complaints known, the unions will be received at the Ministry of Education this Thursday at 2 p.m. The government must then announce at 6 p.m., during a press conference, the measures taken for this return from vacation which takes place three weeks after the closure of schools.
But information began to leak on Wednesday. The protocol will be the same as before the closure: as soon as a student tests positive in a class, it will be closed, said a source within the executive after information from BFMTV and France Inter. Trade unions are also demanding a massive test of staff and students. In response, the government considers “attainable” the goal of one million saliva tests per week in schools and colleges.
Be stricter than before the holidays
For Guislaine David, general secretary of Snuipp-FSU, the first primary union, “we need a much stricter protocol than before the closure. We had to close three weeks ago because the virus entered schools ”. “We ask that the rule of contact cases be redefined. Currently, if a child is tested positive, staff are not declared a contact case. It’s a problem, especially in kindergartens where the children are not masked, ”she explains.
The Snalc (secondary) asks for “a vaccination priority for the staff of the national education”. Since last weekend, teachers over 55 have had “dedicated slots” in vaccination centers. But “only 16% of teachers and those accompanying children with disabilities are over 55 years old,” explains Jean-Rémi Girard, from Snalc.
Request on the canteen protocol
The union asks more “half-groups in all colleges and high schools until the end of the year.” For Jean-Rémi Girard, we must also “completely review the protocol of canteens” to adopt measures similar to company restaurants, or one person for 8 m2.
Finally, according to Sophie Vénétitay, from Snes-FSU, the first secondary school union, “we must be sure that all the tools for distance education are working, that they do not again suffer the crashes before the holidays. “.