As of the start of the 2020 school year, UNOSEL conducted a survey of teachers to find out about their educational school trip plans for the coming year
Indeed, after a 2019/20 school year greatly disrupted by the Covid-19 crisis, all our habits are upset. Educational school trips and discovery classes are greatly affected. Thus, despite an officially lifted travel ban, the resumption of school trips is delayed.
While the organisers of school trips are now almost at a standstill, and very worried about their future, UNOSEL is analysing the needs and problems of teachers.
A desire to travel with the students that remains
The results of this survey show that the desire to organise trips remains very strong, so 48% of the teachers questioned plan to organise one or more school trips this year.
On the other hand, the organisation’s temporality seems out of place. While the travel reservation process usually takes place between June and October, this year it will likely take place in late fall, provided the health situation does not deteriorate.
Note that a significant portion of the planned trips, 39%, actually concerns the postponement of trips initially scheduled between March and June 2020 and which had to be canceled.
These trips, however, are still on the drawing board and have not been finalised. Thus, 57% of teachers planning a trip this year have not yet voted on the principle of travel with their Board of Directors and 58% have not yet started to approach travel organisations.
The planned stays are for the spring period, which represents 83% of the planned stays.
For teachers not wishing to organise trips this year, the main reasons mentioned are: the health risks associated with Covid-19 (93%), the establishment’s decision not to travel this year (52%) and the increased difficulty in convincing parents (44%).
Local and adapted educational school trips
Regarding the planned destinations, France comes in first position with 38% of planned stays, followed by the United Kingdom with 22% of stays, and Spain 18.5%.
Before the crisis, the trend within our labeled organisations placed Great Britain in first position with 32% of stays, followed by Spain 23%, and Italy 16%. France was only in 4th position with only 12% of stays.
Host family accommodation, on the other hand, remains the preferred type of accommodation with 47% of stays considered, followed by youth hostels 35% and hotels 32%.
When asked about the evolution of their needs, the teachers first mentioned the need to put in place security measures (53%); in second position comes the need to adapt the logistics of the trip (limit transport, search for a local stay, etc.) 29% then to change the purpose of the stay (give meaning, make a connection) 15% and finally to adapt the content of the program proposed by the organizers, 8%.
If we can already see that the year 2020-21 will unfortunately not see as many students as usual benefit from educational school trips and discovery classes due to the health context, it is still quite possible to consider setting up stays during this school year.
Our labeled members are available to teachers and schools to meet their needs.
They are adapting their offers, and notably developing their programming in France. Indeed, the cultural and heritage richness of our country makes it possible to set up stays with various themes, whether it be history, art, literature, science, or even languages.
In addition, they are ready to show great responsiveness and guarantee great vigilance in the application of health protocols during each of their stays.
Further survey results
UNOSEL(1) A panel of 856 teachers responded to our survey between August 25 and September 10, 2020.
