SCHOOL AND COVID. In mid-April, the Ministry of Education delivered a new report on the number of classes closed in France due to Covid at school. Browse this article to discover the figures of the school structures closed in detail, as well as those of the cases of contamination.
[Mis à jour le 15 avril 2022 à 15h50] How many classes are closed in France due to Covid? The Ministry of Education delivered on April 15, 2022 its last point position full weekly for Covid-19 in schools. According to this update and its data, as of Thursday April 14 at 1 p.m., 728 classes closed this week out of 284,226, or 0.26% of them *.
Regarding school structures (public and private under contract), the ministry lists 4 that have closed out of 31,506. In detail, all of the closed structures are schools. No college or high school is concerned. What about confirmed Covid cases?
- Students : 39,357 confirmed Covid cases (cumulative over the last seven days; + 4,411 in 24 hours)
- personal : 5,802 cases of Covid (cumulative over the last seven days; + 758 in 24 hours)
These figures are “based on the voluntary declaration of the interested parties in respect of medical confidentiality”, specifies the Ministry of Education.
* As of January 2022, class closures resulting from the appearance of confirmed cases among students as well as those due to the absence of teachers/staff are counted.
Why are some classes still closing?
The government changed the rules in early January regarding establishment closures. Previously, a class was closed as soon as three cases of Covid were identified; at the start of the school year in January, the general principle became that classes do not close and that children are tested as soon as a case of Covid is identified in the class. But it is clear that the classes are closing… The closures actually occur “depending on the situation”. “In the presence, for example, of a very large number of cases”, specified the services of the ministry.
Circulation of Covid in schools, government strategy… Answers
What is the circulation of the Covid at school in France? Does the government keep the same strategy? What form has the health protocol taken in schools, colleges, high schools? Linternaute.com summarizes the useful answers in this special page.
At the end of the day of massive teachers’ strike of January 13 within the National Education (38.5% of strikers according to the ministry; 75% according to the first primary union), the Minister of Education Jean-Michel Blanquer has made new announcements regarding the fight against Covid at school. Recruitment of replacements and reinforcement staff, FFP2 masks, mid-CP evaluations… Here is the summary of the main new formalized measures:
- Additional recruitments : more than 8,000 reinforcements in National Education have been announced “for the next few days and weeks” in order to deal with the health crisis, recalled Jean-Michel Blanquer on January 14. They must officiate, for the moment, until the end of the school year. In the first degree, 3,300 additional contractual teachers will be requisitioned until the end of the school year, he announced. In the first degree, it will also be appealed to the additional lists (those who have passed the teacher competition without being recruited) at the rate of “several hundred people”. In secondary education, the recruitment of 1,500 educational assistants (supervisors) is also planned until the end of the year. In the second degree constituencies, there are also 1,500 more administrative temporary workers who must come to the support of the National Education inspectors, themselves in support of the directors of schools in the management of the coronavirus. About 1500 mediators in the fight against Covid additional were also mentioned by the Minister of Education, guest of franceinfo on January 14.
- A distribution of FFP2 masks : the measure was “not necessarily desirable” according to the High Council of Public Health, insisted on underlining the Minister of Education on franceinfo on January 14, in particular because it is more difficult to teach with this type of masks. The Minister has however promised the distribution of 5 million FFP2 masks, in priority to teachers in nursery schools (young schoolchildren do not wear masks there), to AESH (accompanying students with disabilities) and to teachers with of children with disabilities. Two surgical masks per day must also be provided to teachers in general. On January 26, the Minister of Education announced on BFMTV that “90% of the FFP2 masks are on the ground”, that the others are being sent, and that “the surgical masks are also arriving”.
- Mid-CP evaluations postponed : CP mid-year assessments were scheduled to start the week of January 17. They are finally postponed “to a deadline which remains to be defined with the unions”.
- The postponement of the bac exams, studied : the Ministry of Education will study the possibility of postponing the baccalaureate specialty teaching tests, which normally take place in March. It is the possibility of postponing them to June which must be studied, in consultation with the “representative organizations” and the “council of high school life”.
What about air purifiers?
Regarding air purifiers, aka CO2 sensors to be installed in the classrooms, the minister pointed to a “constitutional rule” by evoking that the distribution of masks was made by the State because it is the employer, but that that of CO2 sensors is “under the jurisdiction of local authorities “. The fund of 20 million euros previously given by the State “is not yet fully consumed”, highlighted Jean-Michel Blanquer. “Our goal is in any case the generalization of sensors, and the State is in support of the communities for this”, affirmed the Minister of Education.
What is the level of Covid circulation at school in France? Here are the incidence rates (number of cases per 100,000) measured over the last rolling week by school level. The figures below are drawn up by Public Health France and taken from the Data.gouv website. If the automatic screening now in force at school obviously increases the scale of the figures, the latter nevertheless establish that the virus circulates widely in schools, at least as much as in the general population:
Following the decrease in hospitalizations linked to Covid-19 in France and generally favorable health indicators, the government has decided to once again lighten the health protocol at school from Monday 14 March. More information on this point in our special page “Health protocol at school”:
The school is today at the heart of the management of the health crisis. The government sticks to a principle from which it does not want to derogate: everything must be done to keep schools opendespite the active circulation of the epidemic of coronavirus. At a press conference on January 20, Prime Minister Jean Castex reaffirmed that the “choice” not to close the schools “was the right one”. “I saw the representatives of National Education staff and we made the necessary corrections, but nothing would have been worse than closing schools, or even delaying the start of the new school year. [de janvier 2022]. Because the reopening, given the surge in the number of cases, would have been very difficult”, he added. This strategy remains the same to this day, and is coupled with a gradual easing of the restrictive measures contained in the health protocol. special schools.