Educational reforms at the service of students? The flip side of TAP

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In recent years, schools have been subject to many changes. Educational reforms regarding the introduction of TAP are divisive. A retrospective of a phenomenon.

Concretely, this acronym designates the time of extracurricular activities. Their goal is to allow all children to have access to artistic activities but also cultural and sports. The school uses external speakers who are part of an association but also has internal speakers at the school: the animators. These stakeholders are under the responsibility of a REV. This City Educator is responsible for organizing the occupation of classrooms and equipment.

The TAP are free workshops on Tuesdays and Fridays from 3pm to 4.30pm. 3 hours a week, children discover languages and civilizations, science, music but also sports, visual arts and multimedia. Each worker is responsible for a group of up to 18 children who change activities at the beginning of each term. The school provides materials to the school's internal stakeholders. External stakeholders are provided by their association. In addition, the school must provide each worker with a badge in his name. Added to this is the fact that the speakers must write on a specification the reason and time of their arrival. All these measures are in place to allow the safety of the establishment but also that of the children.

Unfortunately, the reality is quite different. The rules put in place are not always respected. The external speakers do not, for the most part, have the BAFA – although mandatory – and none of the speakers wear badges. On the side of the associations, the equipment provided is not sufficient for the workshop sessions to take place properly and the children are not actors in their choice of workshop.       

There are really many limitations that must be overcome by schools to be able to set up these workshops effectively: the speakers, for lack of resources, can not properly hold their workshops, which means that the TAP are often an opportunity for children to do their homework. In addition, the standard of supervision is not respected: while some workers end up with a number of more than 18 children for an adult, others have less than a dozen students. Some schools also require outside stakeholders to monitor the hour of study without being paid.

The implementation of APTs does not appear to be as effective as it seems. Due to a lack of investment on the part of associations, extracurricular activities are ineffective in their primary purpose.