Test their children every two days, come and pick them up urgently … The parents of the students have experienced a restless return to school in the face of a “very complicated” health protocol and far from satisfying the teachers’ unions, who widely call for a strike.
“Parents become goats”, summarizes Laurent Zameczkowski, vice-president of the federation of parents of pupils Peep. “You have to get your child back, the tests and pharmacies are crowded, the wait is painful,” he adds. And in general, “self-tests are not given as expected” for free in pharmacies.
“It’s a mess,” adds Nageate Belahcen, co-president of the Federation of Parents’ Councils (FCPE). “The parents are completely cracking up, because for those who work, it becomes very complicated, they run everywhere.”
The start of the school year has been under tension since Monday with the Omicron variant, framed by a new health protocol which requires a multiplication of tests.
Students are now subjected to three tests in four days if there is a positive in the class: an antigen or PCR on the day of the announcement of the Covid case, with certificate to be given to the school, then self-tests to be done at home on D + 2 and D + 4.
A complicated device, while the cases are increasing, with 9202 classes already closed Thursday, the highest since last spring.
Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer acknowledged Friday on CNews that this protocol was “extremely difficult” for families to live with. He also admitted that “here and there, there may be pharmacies out of stock of self-tests”, but that “normally they are replenished”.
The testimonies of hiccups are however numerous. “The feedback from parents is that there has been a big mess in the application of the new protocol”, even if they “do not want schools to be closed”, notes Patrick Salaün, president of the Unaape (National Union of Autonomous Associations of Parents of Students).
For Marie, who had to have her daughter tested in CP in Nice, “impossible to find self-tests”. “I think a friend will surely be able to help me out, but the logistics do not follow.”
– “Indescribable mayhem” –
“It’s just unmanageable,” said Alexandre Leone, parent of a CE2 student in Seine-Saint-Denis, who said “he might not spend his day in line” at the pharmacy.
Laetitia Sarre, in Plan-de-Cuques (Bouches du Rhône), had to “wait an hour” in front of a pharmacy to test her CM1 daughter. “And there was a bug in the registration system,” preventing “at least three or four parents” from performing the tests.
Others are confronted with unreplaced absences of teachers.
“We still did not expect such chaos”, testifies the father of a student of CE1 in Vincennes (Val-de-Marne) whose teacher, absent Monday, had a first replacement then a second, who eventually got sick.
Caroline, near Nantes (Loire-Atlantique), had to keep her CM2 son whose teacher had to be tested, then her daughter in Grande section, before having her son at home once more because of contact. “Everyone’s hallucinating,” she said.
Faced with this situation, parents also feared repeating the cycle of three tests.
They were reassured on this point by an update of the health protocol: the pupils will not have to carry out a complete new course if a new positive case appears in their class within a period of less than seven days.
On the side of the teachers’ unions, this arrangement was not reassuring. “This precision of the ministry is not at all logical, because there are going to be even more holes in the racket. The incubation period, according to many doctors, is five to six days”, declares Guislaine David, secretary general of Snuipp-FSU, the first primary teachers’ union.
Denouncing “an indescribable mess” in schools and “a strong feeling of abandonment and anger among the staff”, the Snuipp-FSU on Friday called a national strike for Thursday, January 13 “to obtain the conditions for a secure school under Omicron “.
He was joined by most of the other teachers’ unions, SE-Unsa, Snes-FSU, Snalc, CGT Educ’action, SUD Education and FO.
Teachers have until Monday evening to declare themselves on strike.
