In the Toulouse academy, 380 classes are closed because of the Covid announces the rector Mostapha Fourar
While the 5th wave of Covid hits France, National Education chooses to go to the health protocol in primary schools from next Monday, November 29. Until now, as soon as a case of Covid was detected, the class closed. From Monday, that will no longer be the case. If a case of Covid is detected, the whole class will be tested and only students with a negative result will be able to return to class. This protocol has been tested in Ariège. Mostapha Fourar, the rector of the Toulouse academy was the guest of France Bleu Occitanie this morning.
8,500 classes are closed in France according to the government. How many in our academy?
380. More exactly, 370 schools and 8 colleges for a total of 380 classes. Kindergartens and primary are kindergartens.
The new device announced by Jean-Michel Blanquer for primary and kindergarten is: a positive case, everyone is tested and children who have the Covid stay at home. The negatives go back to the classroom. It is not contradictory to leave the classes open while the Covid is spreading?
There was first an experiment in ten departments including Ariège.
And we can see the result today: an incidence rate that explodes, with an average rate of 266 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, especially among 6-10 year olds. Does it work ?
What works is that we have limited the closing of the number of classes and this is very important for our students. It is not worth closing all the classes just because the Covid is exploding. It explodes outside the school too, and therefore a systematic test for the students, it helps prevent class closures. It simply means that if we had not tested, we would have closed even more classes.
But don’t we let the Covid spread while leaving the classes open?
I think that now, with hindsight – the Covid has been going on for two years – we have seen every time that we have held together, it is for the good of our students. You know the consequences on their success, on their integration, on their psychology. And therefore, to say that the virus is not spreading would be an aberration. It is spreading and we must collectively ensure that it can have minimal consequences for the education of our students.
You say it’s for the good of the students. With this protocol, some will stay at home, others will go to class. It means learning differences. It’s not necessarily fair, right?
There is an experience unfortunately acquired over the past two years, he does not simply stay with them. It is also a pedagogical continuity that is put in place by our teachers. No one wanted this situation. You talk about it as if it was something that someone wanted. We endure it, we manage it and we manage it better than other countries. France is one of the few countries which has prepared its open schools, colleges and high schools and I can assure you that parents are very content that their children can continue to go to school.
Parents who, as we have heard on France Bleu Occitanie, sometimes have to keep their children at home. Parents do not necessarily have the skills like teachers. The teachers, in fact, they will have to take care of both the students who are in class and those who are at a distance. That means double the work, it’s not possible, that, says the SNUipp in particular. What do you answer?
First of all, I would like to salute the mobilization of our teachers and school leaders. It is a very difficult situation. I’am aware. We are aware of this and they are making this effort in a very specific context that is limited in time. Now it is spreading and it is continuing. And therefore certain measures have been taken, in particular with contract workers. But this brings us back to another subject. Unfortunately, today, it is difficult to recruit contract workers in all fields, in all disciplines. And the answer, it would have been effective to strengthen the teachers by recruiting contract workers. This is what we have to do.
How many contractors are you looking to recruit?
As many as you can offer us. You know that we initially thought that the health crisis would have an economic consequence. Fortunately this is not the case and as you know unemployment today is at a fairly low rate. And therefore, we lack arms in all disciplines and especially in rural areas. We need help and I invite your listeners if there are any who wish to introduce themselves, that they approach the academic directions in their department, in all areas, once again in all disciplines, they will be welcome.
This new protocol also means a lot of tests, especially saliva. Do you have enough today to lead them?
First in the protocol, as was indicated by the Minister of National Education, it is the families who will test the children at home or elsewhere. Free tests in young people. But we have the capacity to be able to respond in cases where the parents could not. This will be studied with the ARS, with the departmental prefectures. We will respond on a case-by-case basis.
We were talking about experimentation, especially in Ariège. You tell us, did it work well?
You will have all the results at the national level in all the departments at the beginning of December, so in a week. It is on the basis of this experiment, in any case, that the Minister of National Education decided to expand this system.