Recruitment, FFP2 masks, postponement of evaluation… Jean-Michel Blanquer’s response to the school’s anger

While nearly 77,500 people, according to the Interior, were in the street this Thursday, January 13 to demonstrate the exasperation of the staff in the face of the waltz of health protocols linked to Covid-19, the Minister of Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer assured to have “understood the ins and outs of this strong mobilization” and announced several measures at the end of the day.

Following a meeting with the unions, Prime Minister Jean Castex and Minister of Health Olivier Véran, Jean-Michel Blanquer announced the availability of “5 million FFP2 masks”, especially on request for kindergarten teachers.

“We have heard the expectation in terms of FFP2 masks. We recalled that the High Council for Public Security did not specifically recommend their development, but we wished with the Prime Minister that it would be possible all the same, particularly for certain personnel. I am thinking of teachers in kindergarten, who have children without masks in front of them, of teachers who intervene in front of students with disabilities, of those we call AESH [ndlr : Accompagnants d’élèves en situation de handicap].”, said the Minister of National Education.

“Even if the principle is not a generalization for all all the time, it is not necessarily desirable in itself, nevertheless, it is 5 million FFP2 masks which will thus be distributed in the school system to meet the needs”, added Jean-Michel Blanquer. The government also indicated that surgical masks would be distributed from the beginning of next week for education personnel.

On the case of “CO2 sensors”, claimed for months, the Minister recalled that the local authorities, competent in the matter, can request the fund set up by the State to obtain them.

To replace absent teachers, the minister promised “several thousands” substitutes “to face the crisis”. “It is true that the Covid creates absences of teachers, administrative staff and that these replacements must be provided,” he acknowledged. Jean-Michel Blanquer said he plans to recruit “3300 more contract workers” and recourse to the complementary lists, that is to say to the candidates who had the competition, but were not recruited.

“I announced that we would be recruiting 3,300 more contract workers, that we are going to have recourse to the additional lists, that is to say therefore to people who are on the competition lists and who thus enter the function, in particular to primary school”, he said, responding to a request made by the unions. “We are also going to recruit what are called educational assistants (AED, editor’s note) and educational support staff for school principals”, added the Minister of Education.

Faced with the disruption caused by the health crisis, the assessments of “mid-CP”, which were to start next week, will be “postponed to a deadline that remains to be defined”.

Regarding the baccalaureate specialty exams, which normally take place in March as part of the new reform, the Minister indicated that he would “to do an analysis again with the representative organizations” to “see if it is appropriate to have a postponement of these events from March to June”.

Blanquer also said that regular consultations will now be held with the unions.“There is fatigue with all the issues of the health crisis, everyone understands it. It was also a moment of explanations. It was also decided that there would now be a bi-monthly meeting with the trade unions, the Ministry of Health and of course the Ministry of National Education, which will make it possible to understand why sometimes decisions have to undergo sometimes very rapid adaptations”, he specified, asking the “return of a climate of trust”.