“All the students were wearing coats.” the school faces energy constraints

As the early-morning thermometer neared 2°C, 15 fifth-grade students at the public college^e The Paris region is in the freezer. Everyone in the class is wearing a coat or scarf. “It should be between 12°C and 15°C, not possible complains Pauline*, their French teacher. It’s hard enough to motivate them this time of year. They are tired and waiting for Christmas, so imagine what can happen when they are stuck in their jackets.According to the management of the facility, the heaters were malfunctioning, but they were repaired.

However, the Paris College is not an isolated case. During the energy restrictions, the government called on all public institutions, including schools, to lower the temperature to 19°C, down from the usual 22°C-23°C. Some municipalities are even forced to make additional drastic savings, especially on heating bills. Everywhere in French territory, and especially in small towns, parents complain of icy classrooms where children shiver more than they work. 1:^eh Elizabeth Bourne sent a circular to prefects in December warning of possible power cuts in schools.

The purpose: lower the bill

Restrictions that anger parents, teachers and city officials. And make the children shiver. Agnes is the mother of Timo and Lea, 4 and 7, in Limoges. The day after All Saints’ Day he had an unpleasant surprise, taking them very cold and flu-like. “When I asked if they had a good day, they told me that it was cold in the classroom and they stayed in their coats.»

Surprised, he asks the director for an explanation. The latter tells him that the stoves were turned off during the two weeks of vacation. As a result, it was barely 12°C in the classroom. Same situation in Evre, Evre, where children had to wait until the end of October for the heating to be turned back on. The reason is the municipality’s energy sobriety plan.

With severe inflation, the costs of municipalities, departments and regions have exploded without the resources to keep up. Thus prompting communities to cut every budget. The school is included. Now is the time for all the little savings. Only for the Normandy region, the cost of energy has multiplied by 2.5 compared to the previous year. If the state provides local authorities with price protection, which limits price increases to 25%, it is still not enough. “Managers are asked to do as they do at home: turn off the lights, contribute to the LEDs, wash the dishes at night, turn off the waiters who would normally be on standby…“Explains Bertrand Denio, responsible for education issues in the Normandy region, responsible for 400 colleges. Added to this are additional measures, such as reducing the heating by 8°C at night, delaying the heating of buildings as much as possible, limiting the number of rooms with radiators connected, etc.

With 30% of the consumption of city buildings, schools are the biggest consumers of energy, ahead of sports and cultural facilities, warns the Ministry of Ecological Transition. What’s more, when buildings are energy sieves, says Ghislaine David, spokesperson for Snuipp-Fsu, the first primary union, gets nervous. Poor thermal insulation, single-glazed windows, arrows… The school leaves hot in summer and cold in winter.

Fluffs, renovation of buildings. finding more or less stable solutions

If in other years the situation was stable, pressing the thermostat, then the winter of 2022 promises to be more severe. The municipality of Perrier in La Manche has decided to offer its 310 students 100% Made In France wool with the words “save the planet“. For Laurent Zameckowski, vice president of Peep, a federation of parents of students in the community, such an initiative is not sustainable. He even doesto smileAdrienne Mison, UNSA Teachers Union Spokesperson. “You need to envision important events and stop saving pennies“.

Together, they refuse to let schoolchildren pay the price of inflation not charged by the state. “A child cannot work properly with a coat or frozen fingers, thinks Laurent Zameckowski. The school must uphold its teaching commitments. To find solutions for the future, the municipality of Neuilly-sur-Marne in Saint-Saint-Denis has bet on the renovation of buildings. “80% of our investment budget will go there“, he trusts Figaro Zartoshte Bakhtiari, the mayor of this city, where 20% of the population lives in poverty. In addition to insulation, which is the first project of the National Education Government’s school construction program, energy renovation of schools also includes replanting playgrounds, searching for new sources of more renewable energy.

For his part, Matignon detailed that in the event of a scheduled power outage, there will be no cafeteria service, and children will not be admitted to school in the morning, thus limiting the hours without heating in the classrooms.