The health protocol will be at the lowest level for the start of the school year

The Ministries of National Education and Health presented Tuesday to the teacher unions the health protocol against Covid applicable to the start of the school year, which will be at the “base” level, the lowest of the new health framework, the unions said. “Unsurprisingly, it is the base level that is retained,” Sophie Vénétitay, general secretary of Snes-FSU, the first secondary school union, told AFP.

Students welcomed face-to-face

“This is the base level, which is already the level applied to Reunion and Mayotte”, added Jean-Rémi Girard, president of Snalc (colleges and high schools).

The Minister of Education Pap Ndiaye had indicated at the beginning of August that the protocol would be decided “ten days before the start of the school year for all or part of the territory”, depending on the situation of the Covid-19 epidemic, the new health framework providing such a delay between the announcement of a protocol and its implementation date.

The “base” level provides that students are welcomed face-to-face, in primary school as well as in middle school and high school, without wearing a mask. Physical and sporting activities are allowed indoors and outdoors without restriction, and there is no restriction on mixing between groups of students.

Respect for barrier gestures, such as washing hands and airing the premises, is however recommended from this level.

Three levels of specific measures

Formalized on July 19, the new protocol provides for a “base” level of general recommendations and three levels of specific measures, applied according to the epidemic situation of the country: level 1 (green), level 2 (orange) and level 3 (red). ).

These levels will be applicable nationally or locally throughout the school year. They aim to propose, depending on the circulation of the virus, progressive measures ensuring the safety of children and educational teams while keeping schools open.

According to this new protocol, the reception of students can only be done face-to-face, unless the red level, provided for in the event of a very degraded health situation, is activated. A system of “hybridization” can then be set up in high school according to the local context.

In addition, the rest of the applicable measures, in particular those relating to the wearing of masks and the management of contact cases, will now be consistent with the health measures taken for the general population. There are no specific rules in schools.

The waltz of health protocols at school, especially during the winter of 2021/2022, put in place due to the Covid-19 epidemic, had exasperated teachers and parents of students, often struggling to follow the rules enacted.