While the return to school is gradually taking place, the results of the distance school are multiplying, welcoming the commitment of teachers. However, this voluntarism has not always been able to prevent an educational divide. A survey of parents of students on behalf of Break Poverty sheds light on their feelings.
Promptly announced on June 13 by the President of the Republic, the closure of schools, colleges and high schools has plunged educational staff, parents of students and associative actors into concern. And for good reason, distance school was synonymous with double punishment for pupils of modest origins.
Not only could family support not replace support for teachers, but inequalities in digital equipment announced confinement that was all the more damaging for students from poor families.
In the end, it is indeed a risk of worsening school dropout that was announced for the most fragile students, who, let us remember, mainly come from a disadvantaged social background in France.
These fears have proved to be correct in the light of the first analyzes carried out. There is a close correlation between social divide and educational divide. A poll, carried out by the IFOP , last May, on behalf of Break Poverty confirms this.
In this context, the FIFG interviewed no less than 801 families with at least one child enrolled in primary or secondary education.
EDUCATIONAL INEQUALITIES AGGRAVATED BY THE CRISIS
Educational continuity requires, digital tools have been crucial in order to maintain distance education. However, all the students were far from leaving “on an equal footing” with regard to their material conditions. Less than one in five children among the children of modest families surveyed had a computer in the sample studied. In the best case the use of the mobile phone becomes the last resort. Despite its poor suitability for educational monitoring.
In the worst case, students simply do not have contact with their teacher. This was the reality of one in four children without a computer against only 6% for those equipped.
THE ENVIRONMENT, A DETERMINANT OF ACADEMIC SUCCESS
Having a computer does not in any way bode well for a quiet study space for the pupil and therefore separate. Here again, the social divide does not go into detail: four out of ten children among the poor and modest categories do not have a separate study space.
Lack of computer, noisy study space, family support which suffers from a modest origin, all factors which raise fears of an increase in school dropout among the most vulnerable students. Here again, the feelings of modest families and well-off are poles apart. Almost three in five poor families fear their children will drop out. Less than one in three wealthy families share this concern.
Besides that, this operation reflects the success of a synergy between private, associative and public actors.
However, at a time when de-confinement has only led to a partial return to school and even though students at risk of dropping out are not necessarily part of the students again in class because of the concern family health, those involved in the “Emergency Connection” operation have decided to pursue their efforts to bridge this digital divide which is so damaging to equality in education.