Guest of the 8 p.m. news from France 2, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced on Monday a relaxation of the health protocol in the face of the Covid epidemic in schools and the risk of mayhem.
While parents of students and teachers have been on their nerves since the start of the school year and a call to strike has been launched, the head of government has announced several measures to relax the health protocol put in place on January 3 and criticized for its complexity. They will come into force on Tuesday.
First change: parents will no longer have to pick up their child immediately after they have been in contact, but at the end of the course. Then, whereas previously, each student identified as a contact case had to immediately undergo a PCR or antigen test, a simple self-test will suffice. It must be renewed on D + 2 and D + 4, must be carried out.
Jean Castex also specified that a single sworn certificate, certifying that the first self-test is negative, would be sufficient for a return in progress. The three self-tests will be free, thanks to a certificate issued by the school. But they will continue to be distributed only in pharmacies. Eleven million new kits must be delivered during the week.
“Contempt”
The teachers’ unions have freshly welcomed these announcements. Guislaine David, general secretary of Snuipp-FSU, the first primary school union, denounced a ” total contempt for the teachers who are in the field “, Considering that it was not going” not at all reduce the number of contaminations at school, on the contrary (…) because a certificate on the honor of the parents is now sufficient “.
Compared to ” the way we protect staff and students, he did not provide any answer », Added Sophie Vénétitay, from Snes-FSU (1st in the second degree). For Stéphane Crochet, from SE-Unsa, “ this new rule will only add tension on the ground, where the situation is already very tense “.
The Prime Minister’s televised intervention appeared as an attempt to calm the smoldering fire among teachers and parents of students, as much as a new setback for the Minister of National Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, weakened since the beginning of the year.
Denouncing ” an indescribable mess “In schools and” a strong feeling of abandonment and anger among staff », The Snuipp-FSU had launched a call for a national strike for Thursday, January 13, joined by most of the other teachers’ unions, SE-Unsa, Snes-FSU, Snalc, CGT Educ’action, SUD Education, FO and CFDT.
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