Concern about having to relive the school closures that have punctuated the past two years has been growing for weeks in the educational community. It was confirmed by the presentation on Thursday 1er December, of the government’s plan to deal with energy tensions that could threaten the electricity grid this winter.
Schools will not be part of the priority structures that will escape power cuts, according to the circular on “scheduled load shedding” addressed to the prefects by the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne. The government plans that power cuts can take place between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. and between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m., in two-hour slots. When load shedding occurs in the morning, “the return of students (…) will take place at the beginning of the afternoon, with no doubt a meal which will nevertheless be provided for the students who are in the canteen”, explained the Minister of National Education, Pap Ndiaye.
The Rue de Grenelle tenant also announced that establishments located near priority structures – and therefore spared from load shedding – could “welcome the children of priority personnel, according to a scheme that has (…) experienced during the health crisis”.
The announcement took the entire educational community by surprise. It revives, among staff still scalded, the memory of the erratic management of the two years of Covid-19 in schools and the specter of distance education that they hoped to no longer know. “Between the students and the teams, the school brings together 20% of the population and we were not warned or consulted”gets angry Didier Georges, member of SNPDEN-UNSA, union of heads of establishments.
The fear of a logistical headache
Beyond the method, in the trade union ranks, we do not hide a bitter astonishment to discover that schools are not considered as priority structures. “During the Covid-19 epidemic, the top priority was to keep schools open, and now we are going to have to close for lack of electricity… It feels like we are walking on our heads”, denounces Guislaine David, of the SNUipp-FSU. For the students, it is a third winter with the threat of fragmented education looming.
Matignon argues that schools do not enter “in none of the categories” listed by the decree of July 5, 1990 which defines the priority establishments for energy supply. “Also very numerous, they would reduce the extent of load shedding”, we add. The executive recalls that the cuts are not planned before January, will only be decided as a last resort, and insists that they will only lead to temporary and one-off closures. “The persons concerned will be warned three days in advance of the risk of load shedding, and the decision will be confirmed to them the day before at 5 p.m.”it is specified.
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