Back to school, 1is September, will not happen « sans » health protocol. And the latter is already ready: this is the message sent by the Ministry of Education when it welcomed, on Tuesday July 12, the first “sanitary point” of the’“Pap Ndiaye era”we comment in the union ranks.
This Tuesday, therefore, five days after the official start of the summer holidays, met Rue de Grenelle the“partnership body” created in January 2022, at the height of the Omicron wave and a vast protest movement on school grounds, to give clarity to the health strategy in schools. A meeting of almost three hours, very symbolic: in the middle of the seventh wave of the Covid-19 epidemic, while the BA.5 sub-variant of Omicron is circulating but schools, colleges and high schools are now closed to the public, the stakeholders, representatives of education, health and the High Council of Public Health, intend to demonstrate that they are not waiting until the end of the summer to decide.
The health protocol valid for the coming year, which will be formalized “in the next few days”, we are assured in the entourage of Mr. Ndiaye, will include according to the unions three levels linked to the circulation of the virus. A level 1 says to “moderate alertness” ; a level 2 of “increased vigilance” ; a level 3 corresponding to a “very unfavorable development”. This is, at first glance, one level lower than in the previous protocol; but the new frame also includes a ” basement “a kind of zero level which amounts, in fact, to positioning oneself on four levels – as under the Blanquer era.
Two main inflections
The unions, which rather favorably welcome the framework presented to them, note two main inflections. First, the ten-day period which is provided between the announcement of a change of level and its concrete application, in the establishments. “The ministry heard that it was necessary to stop operating at a tense flow, with announcements to be put to music overnight”, reacts Sophie Vénétitay, of the SNES-FSU.
Second change: for wearing a mask as for contact tracing, the school will be aligned with the recommendations for the general population set out by the health authorities. “Concretely, today, if we still had class, the mask would be recommended, but not compulsory, continues the trade unionist. Ditto for the management of contact cases and tests. “The idea is that there is no reason for the school to have drastic rules of operation if the rest of society does not have them, also notes Audrey Lalanne, present at the ministry on behalf of SE-UNSA; this alignment should clear up misunderstandings. »
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