Covid at school: “We may have made mistakes”, admits Jean Castex


HEALTH PROTOCOL – Deadlines for the application of new health protocols, communication between teaching staff and the government, support for Jean-Michel Blanquer … Prime Minister Jean Castex spoke on Saturday on the anger of parents of students and unions teachers.

“If things have not always been understood, it is because we have sometimes explained badly.” Three days after the strike movement which mobilized many teachers angry at complex and constantly evolving health protocols, Prime Minister Jean Castex admitted to having “maybe made mistakes” despite “a protocol that remained consistent” in an interview published in Var Morning this Saturday.

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Strike of January 13, 2022: Black Thursday at school

“We may have made mistakes. Our protocol for the start of the school year in January remained consistent with that before the holidays: when a student is positive, we do not close the class but we test the students”, he explained, recalling that his decisions concerning vaccination and screening are based “on the advice of scientific authorities”. That is why “When the High Council of Public Health says that children must be tested three times, don’t count on me to say it’s twice”, assured the Prime Minister.

“We wanted to do the best”

Jean Castex also recognized “serious difficulties in implementation” new health protocols. But beyond the difficulties of application, the parents of students and teachers criticized the government for the lack of time between the publication of the new device and its application. The latest was unveiled on January 2, the day before the start of the school year.

“We are managing a crisis. We received the opinion of the High Public Health Council on December 31 at 3 p.m. Beyond the communication issues, we should perhaps have allowed 48 to 72 hours for its implementation. We wanted to do the best by applying the recommendations of the health authorities as quickly as possible for a start of the school year which fell just after the New Year weekend. This did not allow school principals and teachers and the services concerned to take sufficient ownership of the new protocol”, admitted the Prime Minister.

The president of the High Council of Public Health in front of the unions

Jean Castex also called for more dialogue between National Education and the health authorities. “If things have not always been understood, it is because we have sometimes explained badly. We have agreed that the Ministry of Health will now be associated with the discussions.” And the changes in the health protocol applied in schools will be directly explained by the president of the High Council of Public Health to the unions, he announced.

While the Minister of National Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, is the subject of numerous criticisms from teaching staff, Jean Castex recalled his support for his minister and assured that there “has no friction within the government”.

“I know the situation is difficult”

He finally assumed the government’s decision to leave schools open as much as possible despite the explosion of Covid-19 cases, in particular linked to the spread of the Omicron variant. “All the trade union organizations considered [lors de la réunion de jeudi soir, ndlr] that the school should remain open. The teachers have been working on this every day for more than 20 months with commitment and I would like to thank them once again. I know the situation is difficult, but closing the schools would have been an easy way out.”

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But the government’s latest announcements have not eased all the tensions and were deemed “insufficient” by the Sud Éducation union, which called this Friday for a new strike on January 20.

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