The Minister of Education, Gabriel Attal, indicated on Tuesday that the transition from three to two holiday zones, studied by a commission on the school calendar, “was not part of his immediate plans”, although he would “monitor” the proposal.
“It is not in my immediate plans to review the school vacation calendar, merge zones” (currently three zones, A, B and C, whose vacation dates differ in winter and spring), the minister stressed in the program “La Maison des maternales”. ” on France 2.
“Of course, I will look at the report that you have given me and the proposal that you have made to me. My priority today, when we talk about holidays, is how to guarantee that students with difficulties and who are very behind in French and mathematics can carry out successful internships. , Maybe they go back to school before everyone else,” he added.
“The trend is rather to go from three zones to two”
A commission on the school calendar, which brings together teachers’ unions, parents’ associations and local authorities, is currently working on this issue, created in spring at the initiative of the FCPE parents’ federation.
“The issue is the well-being of the student and his pace of work,” explained Laurent Zameczkowski, spokesperson for the PEEP parent federation. “With the three-zone rolling system, especially for the February and Easter holidays, we encounter gaps. Sometimes there are only five weeks between two holiday periods, and sometimes up to eleven weeks, which is worrying.
To improve the system, “the trend is rather to go from three zones to two,” but the commission “has not yet ruled,” he added. This should present its conclusions to the Minister “in February”, following hearings held since September, in particular with tourism professionals, he stated.
“The current system has drawbacks: spring holidays, for example, arrive too late,” says Jean-Luc Boch, president of the National Association of Mountain Resort Mayors (ANMSM). “We no longer want the zones to overlap because it would create too much concentration. The idea would be to move to two zones that do not overlap.”
“For us, the school calendar works quite well,” said Géraldine Leduc, general director of ANETT (National Association of Elected Officials of Tourist Territories). According to her, “the transition to two zones runs the risk of accentuating the seasonality that tourism suffers.”
Source: BFM TV
