2023-11-18 06:00:04
A flooded street in the Doulac district, in Saint-Omer (Pas-de-Calais), November 14, 2023. AURELIEN MORISSARD / AFP
In the Sainte-Famille school in Blendecques (Pas-de-Calais), a carp was found in the canteen. The anecdote would make you smile if the damage in this private establishment, located in a town among the most affected by the floods in the Saint-Omer sector, were not so considerable. The school is one of seventeen in the department damaged by water and, therefore, still closed on Friday November 17, almost two weeks after the start of the floods which disfigured the department.
These exceptional floods prevented more than 57,000 students and 6,000 national education staff from reaching schools for several days. The first evacuations took place on November 6, the day of resumption after the All Saints’ Day holidays. At the height of the crisis, between November 13 and 15, a quarter of schools, colleges and high schools in Pas-de-Calais (388 sites in 279 municipalities) had to close, most of them due to the impossibility to get there without putting families and staff in danger. Almost all reopened on November 16, but some are only operating with part of their students and staff.
“What worries me now is transport”, explains Blandine Drain, vice-president of the departmental council, responsible for education and colleges, which have all reopened. Some 113 kilometers of departmental roads spread across 74 municipalities are impassable, and it is impossible to assess the extent of the damage to the road network. “Some students no longer have school transportation, and we have displaced and rehoused families for whom it is difficult to reach their establishments”, continues Ms. Drain. The problem is the same for national education staff, some of whom, like the students’ families, are among those affected and cannot all return to work.
Limits of digital tools
This bad weather, which should still leave around fifteen primary schools closed on Monday, challenges national education to the challenge of educational continuity. “We have reactivated the tools used during the Covid-19 epidemic and the reflexes acquired during confinements”assures Jean-Roger Ribaud, academic director, referring to sending homework by email and the use of digital work spaces.
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But continuity thanks to online tools has its limits, especially when families and teachers see their homes flooded, their equipment damaged, or they have to deal with the absence of electricity and Internet network. “A month without school [entre les vacances scolaires et la fermeture des établissements]it’s a long time »deplores Ludovic Barge, who worries about his two pre-teens “who were unable to work on their own”. “My wife works in Lille and comes home late at night. And me, between work and going back and forth to our house to clean, we really didn’t have time to take care of their homework.”recognizes this resident of Arques.
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