According to SPEBS-CGFP, a union representing teachers working in so-called "competence centres" for pupils with special needs, Claude Meisch's arguments are incoherent and contradictory.
It is the third time that the union addresses a highly critical open letter to the minister. According to union representatives, their queries regarding a potential dialogue with the minister were largely ignored.
Teaching staff working with special needs pupils said they do not understand why the rules applying to competence centres should be different to the ones applying to regular primary schools. They explained that the minister's argument had completely changed when he addressed the functioning of competence centres in a press conference last Friday. He reportedly argued that the virus does not represent a tangible threat for children, and that the latter are less contagious than officials had initially feared.
The union stressed that this line of reasoning was fraught with contradictions. In their view, officials should either implement the same social distancing rules in competence centres or declare the health hazards low for all pupils, which would mean that the measures taken in primary schools are redundant.
SPEBS-CGFP demanded that competence centres also benefit from increased staff numbers, that supervisors join the pupils on school buses, and that pupils as well as teachers can get tested regularly.
