Twelve million students will return to school this Thursday, September 1. For Pap Ndiaye, this is a first. And the new Minister of National Education already has duties. On Thursday, the President of the Republic outlined what he wants to see changed in the French education system. In kindergarten, “we will increase attention to the development of the child”, he promised to the rectors of the academy. In college, the sixth class will become “an effective and transversal link with primary school, where everyone will feel supported in this important transition”. A half-day “Weekly Futures” will allow students, from the fifth, to “discover many trades, in particular technical, manual or relational trades”. The “culture pass”, previously reserved for adolescents between 15 and 18 years old, will now be extended to all college students.
In addition to these promises, this return to school will be marked by major innovations, both programmatic and organizational.
- The health protocol reduced to the “base” level
Third back to school under Covid-19, and third different health protocol. This year, it will be that of the “base of measures”, according to the Ministry of National Education. Concretely, this level – the lowest – provides that all students will have face-to-face lessons. Sanitary measures (hand washing, wearing a mask, etc.) will not be specific to schools, but will follow the recommendations of the Ministry of Health. Many doctors insist, for their part, on the importance of ventilation and air purification in order to limit the risks of contamination in the classroom. Teachers who request it will be able to receive self-tests and surgical masks: 61.5 million of them will be sent to academies.
The fact that no new “dangerous” variant has appeared recently in France, accompanied by a sharp drop in the number of Covid patients hospitalized for a month, explains why this “base” level was chosen, according to the Ministry of National Education. In Mayotte and Reunion (where the start of the school year took place on August 24 and 16), the same measures were announced. But nothing is set in stone: each department can see its protocol reinforced during the year.
- 30 minutes of compulsory sport per day in primary school
Jump rope, relay, ball games… Elementary school students will have to get down to 30 minutes of physical activity a day. The objective: to fight against the sedentary lifestyle and obesity of children and adolescents. For good reason, in 2020, 24% of children aged 2 to 7 and 21% of 8-17 year olds were overweight or obese in France, according to theOBEpi-Roche surveycarried out every three years on the initiative of the pharmaceutical company Roche.
Already tested since September 2020 by 7,000 schools, the measure, distinct from the teaching of physical education and sports (EPS), is part of the objectives launched by the government in the run-up to the Paris Olympic Games. in 2024. Recreation but also extracurricular times can be dedicated to this sport. In addition, in certain volunteer colleges, experiments will be carried out to set up timetables allowing students to do two hours of physical activity in their free time.
- Reinforcement of maths in first general
Backtracking for the government. Abolished by the reform of the baccalaureate led by Jean-Michel Blanquer, mathematics is making a comeback in the common core of first general lessons, in the form of an option. The Ministry of Education nevertheless indicated in a statement that the optional nature would only be “transitional”.
Statistics, probabilities, data processing… This option should allow high school students who have not chosen the maths specialty to strengthen their mastery of skills useful for professional life. The new “scientific and mathematical education” will therefore be increased to 3 hours 30 per week, against 2 hours last year, solely devoted to science.