The cameras will film college and high school students being vaccinated, but will that be enough to remove all reluctance? This Monday Jean-Michel Blanquer, will travel to the Amiens academy on the subject of vaccination for 12-17 year olds. He will attend pupil vaccination sessions and recall the installation of vaccination centers in or near establishments by the end of September, as well as the planned communication campaign on the subject.
A pedagogical exercise around the syringe that the minister considers necessary, because the first returns to the vaccination centers in the establishments show that they are far from being taken by storm. “The rate of student adherence to vaccination in schools is 2% in metropolitan academies and 8% in overseas departments and territories”, explains Bruno Bobkiewicz, general secretary of the main union of school leaders. (SNPDEN). In its establishment, the Berlioz school city in Vincennes, out of 1,800 students, only 26 students wanted to be vaccinated. The same goes for Laurence Colin, principal of the Condorcet secondary school in Arcachon: “Out of 700 students, 11 families have requested that their child be vaccinated”.
“Barely 10% of establishments offer a vaccine device”
Asked by 20 minutes on the sluggish start of school vaccination, the entourage of Jean-Michel Blanquer explains “that a vaccine solution is not yet offered in all establishments” and that this will be the case by the end of September. Because for the moment, only 1.314. of the 10,700 middle and high schools offer a vaccination course for students. “It is too early to draw conclusions,” continues Rue de Grenelle.
According to Sophie Vénétitay, general secretary of Snes-FSU, the first secondary teaching union, there was a delay in igniting this file: “Barely 10% of establishments offer a vaccine device, almost three weeks after the start of the school year. . In addition, the parents were poorly informed, some vaccinodromes near colleges and high schools did not reserve slots for students … In short, there was no real organization of school vaccination “, lash out. she.
68.6% of 12-17 year olds received a dose of vaccine
Bruno Bobkiewicz advances another explanation: “The families do not recognize the competence of the school in the medical field. We saw it with the antigenic tests last December, the self-tests in May and now with the vaccination. The families saw that this was not our role. But that does not mean that they reject the vaccination ”. An opinion shared by Stéphane Crochet, secretary general of Se-Unsa: “Parents generally want to support their children during medical procedures. “
And the latest figures of Public Health France seem to agree with them because the vaccine rates among 12-17 year olds have been increasing in recent weeks: as of September 14, 68.6% of them had received one dose of vaccine and 56.4% had received two doses. “The fact that the protocol provides that in the event of contamination at college or high school, students with unvaccinated contact cases must isolate themselves for a week, put pressure on families,” explains Sophie Vénétitay.
Recalcitrant families here or there
However, there are still holes in the racket: “The vaccination rate is very disparate depending on the region, because we know that in the Landes the rate of 12-17 year olds who have had a dose rises to 98% when they are is only 53% in Seine-Saint-Denis ”, emphasizes Bruno Bobkiewicz. “It is worrying to see that in sectors where there are disadvantaged populations, the figures do not change as much as we would like,” he adds.
Even if the phenomenon is rare, some families are clearly recalcitrant on the subject: “We have seen pressure groups distributing leaflets, a nurse was jostled by antivax in the Bordeaux academy, letters were sent to school leaders to tell them that if diseases were declared after the vaccination of the pupils, the principals and principals would bear the responsibility by having relayed the campaign, ”indicates Bruno Bobkiewicz. “It will surely be necessary to strengthen information to families in areas where vaccination is sluggish,” said Sophie Vénétitay. “We are going to deploy the vaccine devices first in the political districts of the city”, assures the Ministry of Education.
As for the sustainability of these vaccination spaces within establishments after the All Saints holidays, it already seems to be called into question: “Perhaps it will be necessary to abandon the vaccination centers internal to establishments, to favor external vaccinodromes. “, Evokes Bruno Bobkiewicz.