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France to fully reopen schools after scrapping 4m sq distance rule

The reopen of France's schools has been accelerated on the back of continued positive news on coronavirus infection levels.

Published: 14 June 2020 20:29 CEST
Updated: 15 June 2020 09:54 CEST

France to fully reopen schools after scrapping 4m sq distance rule

Photo: AFP

While most schools in France are now open, limits on class sizes mean that many pupils are only attending part time, while other parents have opted to keep their children at home.

However, this is set to change, after president Emmanuel Macron is his address to the nation on Sunday night declared: “As of Monday, in France and overseas French territories, nurseries, schools and secondary schools will prepare to welcome all students.”

“From June 22nd,” the president continued, “attendance will be compulsory.”

On Monday the education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer added that the rule requiring 4 m sq of space per pupils – which had dramatically limited class sizes – will be scrapped.

“The fundamental reduction is that of physical distance,” he told Europe 1. Instead of the 4m sq required until now around each child, the physical distance will be “one metre laterally between pupils”, he detailed.

“This allows us to accommodate all students.”

Schools in France closed on March 16th, the day before the nationwide lockdown began, although some local authorities in 'cluster' areas had closed their schools down earlier.

They began to reopen from May 11th, at first only primary schools.

The reopening was extended to all schools from June 2nd, but limits on class sizes – a maximum of 15 pupils in schools and 10 in nurseries – meant that many children were only attending for part of the week.

Data from June 4th showed that only around a quarter of pupils were back in school.

Since the reopening began, parents had been able to decide whether to send their children back or not, with many opting to continue home schooling.

However, from June 22nd, attendance will be compulsory again and any parents who wish to continue home schooling on a permanent basis will have to go through the process to be registered with their local authority.

The next week will be taken up with preparation time for schools as they prepare to welcome all pupils back from June 22nd.

Although it will be a brief return – schools in France break up for summer holidays on Friday, July 4th and the government has already ruled out extending the summer term or introducing extra classes.

The minister defended this decision, saying “Every day counts in the life of a student.

“The fundamental objective, and I've been saying this from the beginning, is that there should not be a break for students between March and September, which is the case in Italy. But we all know that this can create social and educational damage. Children need to go to school.”

The announcement did not concern lycée – high school – students, who are usually doing exams at this time of year – or universities, which are largely set to continue online teaching until September.

But centres de loisirs, which operate over the summer holidays proving activities and childcare, will go ahead this summer, it has been confirmed.

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Azerbaijan vehemently rejects the accusation it bears responsibility for the riots that have led to the deaths of five people and rattled the Paris government.

But it is just the latest in a litany of tensions between Paris and Baku and not the first time France has accused Azerbaijan of being behind an alleged disinformation campaign.

The riots in New Caledonia, a French territory lying between Australia and Fiji, were sparked by moves to agree a new voting law that supporters of independence from France say discriminates against the indigenous Kanak population.

Paris points to the sudden emergence of Azerbaijani flags alongside Kanak symbols in the protests, while a group linked to the Baku authorities is openly backing separatists while condemning Paris.

“This isn’t a fantasy. It’s a reality,” interior minister Gérald Darmanin told television channel France 2 when asked if Azerbaijan, China and Russia were interfering in New Caledonia.

“I regret that some of the Caledonian pro-independence leaders have made a deal with Azerbaijan. It’s indisputable,” he alleged.

But he added: “Even if there are attempts at interference… France is sovereign on its own territory, and so much the better”.

“We completely reject the baseless accusations,” Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry spokesman Ayhan Hajizadeh said.

“We refute any connection between the leaders of the struggle for freedom in Caledonia and Azerbaijan.”

In images widely shared on social media, a reportage broadcast Wednesday on the French channel TF1 showed some pro-independence supporters wearing T-shirts adorned with the Azerbaijani flag.

Tensions between Paris and Baku have grown in the wake of the 2020 war and 2023 lightning offensive that Azerbaijan waged to regain control of its breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region from ethnic Armenian separatists.

France is a traditional ally of Christian Armenia, Azerbaijan’s neighbour and historic rival, and is also home to a large Armenian diaspora.

Darmanin said Azerbaijan – led since 2003 by President Ilham Aliyev, who succeeded his father Heydar – was a “dictatorship”.

On Wednesday, the Paris government also banned social network TikTok from operating in New Caledonia.

Tiktok, whose parent company is Chinese, has been widely used by protesters. Critics fear it is being employed to spread disinformation coming from foreign countries.

Azerbaijan invited separatists from the French territories of Martinique, French Guiana, New Caledonia and French Polynesia to Baku for a conference in July 2023.

The meeting saw the creation of the “Baku Initiative Group”, whose stated aim is to support “French liberation and anti-colonialist movements”.

The group published a statement this week condemning the French parliament’s proposed change to New Caledonia’s constitution, which would allow outsiders who moved to the territory at least 10 years ago the right to vote in its elections.

Pro-independence forces say that would dilute the vote of Kanaks, who make up about 40 percent of the population.

“We stand in solidarity with our Kanak friends and support their fair struggle,” the Baku Initiative Group said.

Raphael Glucksmann, the lawmaker heading the list for the French Socialists in June’s European Parliament elections, told Public Senat television that Azerbaijan had made “attempts to interfere… for months”.

He said the underlying problem behind the unrest was a domestic dispute over election reform, not agitation fomented by “foreign actors”.

But he accused Azerbaijan of “seizing on internal problems.”

A French government source, who asked not to be named, said pro-Azerbaijani social media accounts had on Wednesday posted an edited montage purporting to show two white police officers with rifles aimed at dead Kanaks.

“It’s a pretty massive campaign, with around 4,000 posts generated by (these) accounts,” the source told AFP.

“They are reusing techniques already used during a previous smear campaign called Olympia.”

In November, France had already accused actors linked to Azerbaijan of carrying out a disinformation campaign aimed at damaging its reputation over its ability to host the Olympic Games in Paris. Baku also rejected these accusations.