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Day: 4 April 2020

Feeding the elderly and vulnerable

by: Cassandra Tanti
04/04/2020

Monaco’s ‘meals on wheels’ programme for seniors and the frail is a perfect example of how the community is coming together to help those most in need.
The Monaco National Council extended its meal distribution service at the start of the coronavirus crisis, mobilising students and teachers at Lycée Technique et Hôtelier de Monaco (LTHM) with the support of Isabelle Bonnal, Director of National Education, Youth and Sports, and under the leadership of headmaster Jean-Marc Deoriti-Castellini.
The team at LTHM have joined forces with those at the Princess Grace Hospital Centre (CHPG), which already provides meals to beneficiaries of Home Help throughout the year – on average 150 each day.
To ensure the smooth running of the service, staff of the Service des Seniors and de l’Action Sociale manage the reservations and the dispatching of meals on a daily basis. The Service du Domaine Communal – Commerce, Halles et Marchés, with the assistance of the chef of the Municipal Restaurant Julien Baldacchino, is in charge of creating the menus in collaboration with the chefs at the LTHM.
While all schools in the Principality are closed, the LTHM opens its kitchens from Monday to Friday for the production of balanced and varied meals, the number of which is constantly increasing.

Photo: Mairie de Monaco

Every day, 150 lunches and 75 dinners are prepared in the kitchens of the LTHM before being delivered to members of the community aged over 70 and the frail, by staff from the Service des Seniors and de l’Action Sociale de la Mairie de Monaco and volunteers from the Monaco Red Cross.
The meal trays include starter, main course, cheese, dessert and bread and are priced at €9 for lunch and €15 for lunch and dinner.
Meals provided to low-income recipients are paid for by the council.
For more information, contact 93 15 22 99 from Monday to Friday from 8.30am to 6pm.
 
Top photo: Mairie de Monaco
 

Written part of Bac cancelled

by: Cassandra Tanti
04/04/2020

Monaco will change the format of this year’s high-school baccalaureate exam in line with France due to the coronavirus lockdown.
Just hours after France’s National Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer said on Friday that students will not sit the traditional ‘bac’ exam this summer, Minister of the Interior Patrice Cellario announced Monaco’s position.
“The exams are immediate and automatic insofar as the Principality follows French programs,” said the minister. “We prepare our students, throughout the school year, to take the French National Education exams.”
It means the bac 2020 will take place, but without written tests. Students will receive an average score in each subject calculated from marks given for tests and homework throughout the year – a “fair” solution amid the current crisis, said Jean-Michel Blanquer.
Notes received during confinement will not be taken into account.
For pupils in Première, the oral French exam will still be applied and could be held in late June or early July if conditions allow.
Those who do not pass the exam in July (overall score below 8/20) may be allowed to take the test again in September, if approved by an examination board.
Introduced by Napoleon in 1808, the bac has been adapted over the years. It now includes three different categories: professional, focused on trades like carpentry; technological, which is centreed on computer sciences; and the general baccalaureate. It is the first time since its inception that the bac exam will not take place in its traditional form.