There is no question of letting the Covid-19 spoil the return to school for more than 500,000 high school students in Ile-de-France. This year, the Île-de-France Region – through the voice of its president Valérie Pécresse – has decided to take the initiative and announced this Tuesday, August 31, several measures to protect the health of students and ensure the continuity of lessons in a particular health context.
In fact, five major novelties were announced on Tuesday, during the back-to-school conference chaired by Valérie Pécresse. Among them, the distribution of an anti-Covid kit to each high school student, the use of temporary workers and the installation of CO2 sensors and other air purifiers in the canteens of public high schools.
Distribution of sanitary kits
From the start of the school year, an anti-Covid kit will be given to each high school student. This will consist of two masks, a self-test, hydroalcoholic gel and an information leaflet on vaccination centers, as well as another on the reminder of barrier gestures.
shuttles to vaccination centers
In addition, high school students who so wish can be accompanied to a vaccination center. “Transport is the only competence of the Region that we could use to help the vaccination of high school students”, justified the president of the Île-de-France region.
To do this, a travel plan could be put in place, via Île-de-France Mobilités. The organizing authority for transport in Île-de-France would then be dispatched to manage shuttles, especially in rural areas in the outer suburbs, to allow all high school students to access a vaccination center.
The use of temporary workers
Created at the start of the 2020 school year, the temporary employment system must be made permanent in September 2021 in order, explains the Île-de-France Region, “to respond quickly to the needs of establishments”. Concretely, this measure allows establishments to quickly replace absent staff in high schools. In 2020, more than 2,500 temporary workers were deployed there.
At the same time, the number of high school officers has been increased. Last year, the number of agents was increased to 9,000, with the recruitment of 500 additional contractors to replace vulnerable agents removed from work by the pandemic. And this, in order to ensure the continuity of the public service, to ensure the cleaning and maintenance of the premises or the half-board service.
remote work made easy
In addition, more than 8,000 classrooms have been equipped with simple or interactive video projectors allowing the visualization of digital resources in the classroom. If necessary, wireless microphones, webcams and 4G keys will be made available to high school students to facilitate distance lessons for those who would be placed in isolation, for example.
Finally, the digital workspace (ENT) of secondary schools in Ile-de-France – Monlycée.net – has been enriched with new modules “offering tools for personal work, collaboration and sharing, such as a web conference system allowing the creation of rooms. virtual classrooms, and a system for uploading videos for educational use called Peertube ”.
CO2 sensors
In order to ensure that the classes are well ventilated if necessary, 100% of the canteens in public high schools have been equipped with CO2 sensors and other air purifiers. In total, 210 high schools have already ordered a thousand air purifiers, supported by the regional purchasing center.
In addition, by the start of the All Saints holidays and the resumption of indoor PE lessons, the Region will have finished equipping all the gymnasiums, sports halls and teachers’ rooms with Co2 sensors. all public high schools. The Region also supports the cost of air purifiers at the request of high schools.