Virus surge threatens France's back-to-school plan

Schools in France are braced for a challenging start to the new academic year beginning Tuesday, as the country's education minister admitted not all classrooms will be ready in time.

With several thousand new infections now reported in France every day, Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer told the Journal du Dimanche newspaper that some classes will remain closed when the nationwide reopening begins Tuesday, but “as few as possible.”

With less than 48 hours to go before the first French school bells ring, he said openings and closures were “being decided by a day-by-day analysis based on the health situation of each territory.”

French doctors published an appeal Saturday saying that the government's anti-virus measures for schools aren’t strict enough. They urged masks for children as young as six and a mix of online and in-person schooling.

Currently French schools are set to resume largely as normal, but with masks required all day for everyone 11 and over and some restrictions on movements and gatherings. In contrast, other European countries like Denmark and many school districts in the U.S. are undergoing a full school day revamp that includes smaller classes, more teachers, more separation between students and classes and a mix of in-class and online learning.

It takes a trained eye to notice the changes the pandemic has brought to some schools: a line of yellow dots by the main gate for children to stand on, and brand new soap dispensers for the younger ones in some of the classrooms. Little else.

In a few days, more than 400 children, aged 3 to 11, will walk through the main gate at Anatole France school in Antony, on the southern outskirts of Paris.

Their teachers are at work already, desperate to untangle a logistical nightmare made of social distancing and preventative measures.

"Inside the classroom, we won't ask them to respect social distancing," nursery teacher Cecile Cluchier said bluntly.

"As soon as they'll be in contact with one another, we're going to try and (get them to wash their hands)… but let's not fool ourselves. We know that with 25 pupils, we won't always be able to keep an eye on each of them."

The Education Ministry has issued guidelines that make it mandatory for adults at the school to wear face masks.

But how do you maintain high teaching standards while enforcing these sanitary measures?

Cluchier said wearing a mask "changes the way you greet people."

"It changes your relation to others. It changes the way you speak," she said.

And, she adds, it also changes the way you teach.

"We work a lot on language and it's also based on visual cues – it won't be the case now. With a colleague from another school we were wondering whether we might buy clear see-through masks."

It takes more to bring down headteacher Aline Becker, who's in charge this year of not just the nursery but also the primary school, both named after early 20th century French writer Anatole France.

She seemed confident the yellow dots on the ground and the soap dispensers will soon find their place in the teachers' and students' new routine.

Becker's real challenge is to make sure her students – many from underprivileged families living in this nondescript neighbourhood of a Paris suburb – don't fall behind.

"We're not going to start this year as if the previous one had ended normally," Becker explained.

"We're obviously going to have to go over lessons from last year and we will have to adapt the content of our lessons."

Not all children at Becker's school had access to a computer or books during the long weeks of the lockdown.

Not all parents had the facilities or the know-how to home-school their children. Bringing them up to speed is going to take time.

"We're not going to bridge this gap in three weeks or a month," Becker said, worried the French government will push teachers to make up for the time lost and still complete the programme by the end of the year.

Meanwhile for 6-year-old Nahel, the main issue is the prospect of getting homework.

The youngster is moving up into primary school and the fight against the coronavirus is not at the top of his agenda.

His mother, Sandra Keumegne, hopes the virus measures won't ruin the experience for him as he learns to read and meets new friends.

"It's tricky for children to stay at a safe distance and respect preventative measures", Keumegne said.

"So we keep telling him to stay attentive because the virus is still around and there's still this situation and we need to be careful."

(Image Credit Pixabay)