Published on March 26, 2023 at 5:59 p.m.
An experimental structure for teenagers who suffer from school phobia – ©MART PRODUCTION
A third of secondary school students feel some form of anxiety about going to class. In the Haut-Rhin, an experimental structure is aimed at them. It welcomes students who suffer from school phobia in a caring environment.
Alternate courses and talking time are on the menu of this new generation education system. This is the objective of this experimental system established in Strasbourg and which is aimed at young people whose school anxiety becomes too great to continue to evolve in the general system. They encourage young people to find their way, with less stress.
According to a survey by the Ecol’huma association which dates from August 2022, a third of students say they are stressed or anxious at the idea of going to class. A stress that has terrible consequences, since it often results in a disengagement in studies and can lead to dropping out of school. Anxious young people in the school environment are characterized in particular by aggressive behavior, risky behavior or, on the contrary, by withdrawal into themselves.
In some cases, the anxiety is such that it turns into school phobia. This is the case for one in four young people. Young people with this condition cannot even talk about their school environment without having panic attacks. In this kind of case, it is necessary to find solutions so that teenagers go back to school.
Brik’école comes to the rescue of school phobia
Brik’école is a device deployed in the Haut-Rhin and which welcomes students in a situation of school phobia. It can accommodate fifteen students. His particuliarity ? It is not located in a school or hospital, which allows young people to meet in a neutral place to gradually get used to a training context.
The start of the school year takes place in October and the courses last until May. The program is completely adapted to the condition of the students and includes light lessons and interventions by artists, health or education professionals. It is a place conducive to reconstruction and the construction of new projects, in an environment experienced as less stressful.
At the end of a school year, teenagers pursue their projects, sometimes against the current of what they were doing before. The class of 2022 included sixteen students, twelve of whom returned to school or undertook training after a year spent within the structure.