For the teachers and teachers of Mayotte, as for the parents of students, it is still very unclear. When will the start of the school year really take place? Under what conditions? And with which students? During his visit to the 101st French department at the end of December, two weeks after it was ravaged by Cyclone Chido, François Bayrou spoke of a return to school “according to the terms adapted establishment by establishment from January 13. A date confirmed on Sunday by Elisabeth Borne, now Minister of National Education, who said despite everything that it would be adapted “on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the situation of each establishment.”
This Wednesday, January 8, the rector of Mayotte, Jacques Mikulovik, and the prefect of the archipelago, François-Xavier Bieuville, provided a new update on the situation during a press conference, as reported by Mayotte la 1ere. First lesson: no student should return to class next week. From January 13, only a few courses should be given online, on the Lumni educational platform, as a priority for classes with exams at the end of the year. Students will return to school from January 20.
Schools under tents
At the same time, from January 13 to 18, an inventory must be made again to know in which establishments it will be possible to accommodate students, and to think about alternative solutions when this is not possible. “Several scenarios” are considered depending on the municipalities, explains Jacques Mikulovik. This will involve the establishment of new rotations between classes (in certain schools, students are used to only having classes every half day, due to lack of sufficient infrastructure), the adaptation of school rhythms, the reinforcement distance learning systems or even the setting up of tents to replace destroyed establishments. Buses will also be put in place to allow students whose school is destroyed to go to a school in the neighboring village.
It remains to be seen whether the teachers will be there. Many have left Mayotte in recent weeks and do not see themselves returning there so quickly. “I have lots of teacher friends who have left. They do not plan to return on the 13th. At worst they will stop, but they do not want to return to this chaotic situation”a Mahorais told us on Tuesday. Elisabeth Borne has already announced emergency aid of 2,000 euros which will be paid to the most affected and lowest paid teachers in difficulty. Also a way to ensure that he stays in Mayotte. François Bayrou, for his part, had mentioned the possibility of calling in reinforcements “solidarity teachers”, particularly by calling on retirees or students.
The start of the school year could also be an opportunity to have more precision on the human toll of the cyclone – teachers will be able to see whether or not students are missing. For the moment, the prefecture is talking about 39 people dead and around forty missing. “There is a body of evidence which allows us to believe that these people (disappeared) are unfortunately victims of Chido”declared François-Xavier Bieuville this Wednesday. Despite everything, we still remain very far from the hundreds or even “thousands” of victims imagined in the hours following the disaster.
