Jean-Michel BLANQUER on 16 December 30829. – NICOLAS MESSYASZ / SIPA
French children and adolescents will go to school on Monday “as planned”, Sunday said the Minister of National Education Jean-Michel Blanquer , adding that the screening tests for Covid – 20 will be “deployed even more strongly” in high schools.
“The children will go to school tomorrow (Monday) as planned”, he assured
BFM TV , promising a return “according to the reinforced health protocol”.
Concerns about the return of children to school
“We are going to deploy the tests even more strongly”, added the min istre, while concerns point to an outbreak of the epidemic with the return of children to school and the detection in France of two variants of the Covid identified in the United Kingdom and South Africa.
These two strains, explained the Director General of Health Jérôme Salomon at Sunday Newspaper, “Would affect” young people more. “We must therefore be very attentive to the school and university environment”. All the more so, added Jérôme Salomon, that “the children return from different places, in France or abroad”, which can “reshuffle the maps of the epidemiological situation”.
Asked about these statements, Jean-Michel Blanquer indicated that the health protocol could be “Accentuated” in the educational world. “We are always capable of adjustments in the future if necessary,” said the minister. “We are very attentive, we remain vigilant”, he hammered, “but we can perfectly organize the return to school tomorrow”.
Door open to differentiated measures according to the regions
Concerning the objective to bring back the high school students to 20 % in person on 19 January He assured that the “maximum” would be done “so that this deadline is held”, depending “obviously” on the figures of the epidemic. The minister also left the door open to differentiated measures according to the regions: “If things were to get worse in certain departments, we could take specific measures. At this stage, however, it is not envisaged ”, he replied.
Jean-Michel Blanquer also wished that the teachers could be vaccinated as quickly as possible “in March at the latest, if we manage to do it before it would be good “. In addition, when asked about the government’s vaccination strategy, sharply criticized in recent days for its slowness, he underlined the “very great attention” paid “to the consent of people”.