A return to distant studying will not be the way in which to deal with hovering power costs, Sylvie Retailleau says
Universities mustn’t swap again to on-line lessons as a way to deal with the power disaster, French Larger Training Minister Sylvie Retailleau has mentioned.
Her assertion comes as France and different European nations are more and more on the lookout for cost-saving measures amid the hovering power costs and rising fears of gasoline shortages.
“We’re getting out of the Covid-19 [restrictions], we should hold the educating within the classroom,” Retailleau mentioned on Wednesday, as quoted by the newspaper Le Monde.
“The establishments that need assistance can be assisted so we don’t should return to distant studying.”
The minister beforehand acknowledged that universities are required to implement power cost-saving measures, however they need to not come “on the expense of the scholars [and staff].”
Retailleau’s remarks got here after the College of Strasbourg (Unistra) in japanese France was criticized by academics’ unions and scholar teams for a call to make the winter break longer this 12 months and produce again distant studying to take care of rising power prices.
The college’s president, Michel Deneken, introduced on Monday that Christmas holidays can be prolonged by one week to January 9. Moreover, all lessons can be taught remotely for per week in February.
The heating on the college, which has almost 57,000 college students, can be turned on “as late as doable,” with the temperature maintained at 19C (66F), Deneken added.
“We face an power disaster. As you realize, the price of power is rising daily,” Deneken mentioned. “All of us must work collectively and alter our habits in the long run.”
Scholar group AES blasted Unistra’s plan to impose distant studying as “egocentric and degrading,” arguing that the transfer violates the rights of scholars.
“The academics must educate in thermal blankets, whereas the scholars will shiver from the chilly,” Imane Oulhadj, the top of the Unef scholar union, mentioned.
Main academics’ unions FSU and CGT-FERC equally argued that it’s the duty of the federal government to impose energy-saving measures with out limiting entry to public providers.
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