EDUCATION – The day after candidate LR Valérie Pécresse’s proposal to extend the Christmas holidays in an attempt to curb the spread of Covid-19, Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer said this Sunday that the postponement of the start of the school year was not “the preferred hypothesis”
LCI editorial staff –
Postpone the start of the school year to mitigate the fifth wave? Jean-Michel Blanquer responded this Sunday in the negative to the LR candidate Valérie Pécresse, who broadcast this idea on TF1 on Saturday. For the Minister of Education, who had already chosen not to advance the date of the vacation, their extension is not “the preferred hypothesis”. This solution would be, he said this Sunday on BFMTV, decided in “last resort”.
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“From the start, there has always been pressure to close the school as soon as there is an alert and I have always resisted this pressure as much as possible because the school is not an adjustment variable. , it is essential for our children and therefore it is the last thing to close “, he hammered. “This is what we do last because we put children first in all of our decisions, children first”, he added.
A high incidence rate which does not worry the Minister
The minister also recalled that despite the highest contamination rate in children since the start of the pandemic (50,052 students and 2,599 teachers infected this week), saturation in hospitals and in intensive care units is today ‘hui more to take into account.
“The incidence rate in the general population is a criterion but it is less valid now because a lot of people infected, that does not necessarily mean much if there are a lot of people vaccinated”. As of December 12, 76% of 12-17 year olds were fully immunized. The imminent opening of vaccination for 5-11 year olds will further increase the vaccination coverage of children.
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Asked whether, according to a survey, among parents of children aged 5 to 11, seven in ten do not want to vaccinate them, the minister said: “that does not surprise me”. “Families are always more careful when it comes to children under 12, so 30% seems to me to be a good base”.
Vaccination of 5-11 year olds at school “not excluded”
To reach out to reluctant parents, the minister indicated that he is not “not excluded from offering vaccination” at school, as it was “done in middle school and high school, for 12-17 year olds”.
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“We are able to do the same thing at school, but there the whole health system is organized to be able to vaccinate children outside the school system”, he explained. “We would be able to do it in certain places, for example, where we know that we have to go ‘towards’ to be more efficient and to have more families involved.”
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