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The reopening of schools these days is one of the most discussed topics, in Italy and beyond. If in Italy there are still partial indications, about three weeks after the reopening, in other countries schools have already been opened, in some cases for several weeks: sometimes with success, sometimes with negative consequences. However, to understand how things were in different countries, we must take into account several variables, first of all the trend of the epidemic.
In its latest guidelines, the World Health Organization has said that all students aged 12 and over should wear a mask, recalling that this is a “difficult time” for schools and therefore a lot of action is needed. caution. According to Hans Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe, “it is not possible to open companies without first opening schools”: but “the fact of the matter is that the reopening of schools depends essentially on the level of transmission in the communities, and therefore that the basic measures must be applied everywhere ».
According to a recent UNICEF report, 1.5 billion children around the world have stayed at home since the start of the pandemic due to safety regulations imposed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus infection: UNICEF estimates that in these months With schools closed, 463 million children have not had access to education due to the lack of adequate tools for distance education.
At the height of # COVID-19 confinements, at least 463 million children without access to the internet, television or radio were denied an education.
UNICEF calls on governments to prioritize the reopening of schools and take all possible steps to reopen safely. pic.twitter.com/E0YN7H1BNn
– UNICEF (@UNICEF) August 28, 2020
Denmark
Denmark was the first country in Europe to reopen schools on April 15 and managed to do so without major difficulties thanks to an efficient contact tracing system. For this reason, it was seen as one of the most virtuous countries to be taken as an example for the management of the reopening of schools.
In Denmark, children aged 2 to 12 years are separated into “protective bubbles”, that is, small groups that do not come into contact with each other, so that in case of contagion the “bubble” of the infected person can be easily isolated without set. the class must stay home in quarantine. In addition, staggered tickets and different times have been provided, including lunch; The mask is not mandatory, but students must wash their hands every two hours and parents cannot enter schools.
As part of what the Danish Ministry of Education had defined as a “controlled reopening of the company”, university students, researchers and young people aged 12 to 16 were able to resume their studies from 18 May, with similar measures. To date, 16,500 cases of contagion have been found in Denmark and 623 deaths of almost 6 million inhabitants.
– Read also: All (or almost) about the reopening of schools
Israel
One of the countries where things did not go well is Israel, where schools had already reopened in May but with negative results. With a significant reduction in infections – an average of 628 per day in the week of April 3 compared to twenty in the week of May 17 – the government had authorized the reopening of schools. However, an outbreak found in a Jerusalem high school forced the government to close more than 240 schools. At the end of the school year, in June, 977 students tested positive.
In recent days, Israeli Education Minister Yoav Gallan said schools will regularly reopen on September 1: for the moment without the use of a mask, due to extreme heat. If a positive student is determined, the school will remain open, while only the classroom where an infection is found will have to undergo a quarantine period at home. However, the situation raises concern because, as it has reconstructed The newspaperIn these days, the weekly average of infections registered in Israel has more than doubled compared to the peak of the pandemic: in April the weekly average of infections was 628 cases, while in the last week it was 1,389, of almost nine million population .
Children at the entrance of a school in Tel Aviv, Israel. (AP Photo / Sebastian Scheiner)
Germany
the New York Times He wrote that in Germany, with the general reopening of schools, a “roller coaster” is expected. Germany’s approach varies greatly depending on the characteristics of each “land”, the name by which the German federal states are indicated: as early as 3 August, for example, schools were able to reopen on the land of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and on the 12th in North Rhine-Westphalia, but also in the cities of Berlin and Hamburg.
In Germany, an average of 1,377 new infections per day was registered in the last week, with a slight increase compared to the previous weeks; In Berlin, a week after the schools reopened, infections were found in at least 41 of the 825 schools present. The infected children and school employees were quarantined, but according to local authorities cited by the German newspaper Berlin newspaper these are isolated cases and not outbreaks.
– Read also: In France the situation worsens
In German schools it is necessary to maintain physical distance but the mandatory nature of the mask varies from one country to another: in Berlin it must be used in common areas of schools but not in classrooms; in North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populated area in Germany and one of those considered most at risk, it is also mandatory during classes.
Landers such as Bavaria and Saarland had closed schools quite early, on March 13, when Germany had not yet been violently hit by the pandemic: at that time, 2,369 cases and 6 deaths had been verified from coronavirus-related causes, while in Italy the positives registered were 17,660 and deaths 1,266. The schools were gradually reopened from the end of April, when, among other things, the experimentation of a hybrid model of distance and classroom education began, with few students at a time.
The reopening of a school in Schwerin, on the land of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, on August 3. (Jens Buettner / DPA via AP)
UK
It was one of the most indecisive countries about what to do at the start of the pandemic, and even near the opening of schools it gave some unclear hints: Prime Minister Boris Johnson had initially opposed wearing masks at school, saying that “You cannot teach with your face covered, as you cannot expect to learn with your face covered.” However, in recent days, the government has backtracked and decided that students ages 11 to 18 will be required to wear masks in all common areas of schools, in accordance with WHO guidelines.
The government’s decision came at the last minute, when schools in Leicestershire, in central England, had already reopened, causing some irritation among teachers. For children under the age of 11, the mask is not mandatory, but school principals can still decide to wear it if they deem it appropriate. Also in Scotland, middle and high school students will have to wear masks in hallways, common areas and on school buses, but not in classrooms, where steps have been taken to facilitate physical distancing.
U.S
Although the coronavirus epidemic in the United States was still spreading rapidly and the spikes in infections had been registered less than two weeks before, the opening of schools had already been authorized for the first of August, with immediate serious consequences. ‘in all states. For example, in the school district of Cherokee County, Georgia, in the southeastern United States, several infections were already reported on the first day of the inauguration and in a few days almost 1,200 people remained at home in quarantine among the students. and school personnel. In Mississippi to date, infections have been reported in 71 of 82 school districts.
As explained by New York Times, the reopening of schools is an issue that has divided local authorities and public opinion in the United States: each state has some autonomy in decision-making, but principals, teachers and parents have clashed over what they think it would be more correct or safer, particularly in rural communities, as the Trump administration pushed for a virtually indiscriminate reopening.
Also, he always told the New York Times, with the excuse of maintaining the privacy of people who have been infected, schools in some school districts in Florida and Georgia tend not to report and communicate cases of contagion, to avoid quarantines, closures and concerns, but thus preventing both tracking the infections that contain the epidemic. To date, almost 6 million infections have been registered in the United States and at least 180 thousand people have died from causes related to the coronavirus.
In Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and many other countries, SCHOOLS ARE OPEN WITHOUT PROBLEMS. Democrats think it would be bad for them politically if American schools opened before the November election, but it is important for children and families. You can cut funding if you don’t open!
– Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 8, 2020
Other countries
Currently Spain, which has often been compared with Italy for the number and spread of infections, is the European country with the highest number of infections per million inhabitants in the last 14 days, with an average of about 7 thousand per day. Given the worsening of the situation, on August 27 a meeting was held between the Minister of Health Salvador Illa and the Minister of Education Isabel Celaá to define plausibly stricter measures for the resumption of the school. The country He stressed that going back to school must be “different and flexible”, a bit like all the management of the pandemic has been done, largely entrusted to the regions to better assess the characteristics and risks of each territory.
In South Korea, the government on Wednesday ordered the closure of most schools in the Seoul capital area, after at least 143 students and 43 school employees tested positive for the coronavirus in the past two weeks. Distance education was resumed since last Wednesday and will remain in force until at least next September 11. Since May, South Korea had a system where only a third of students (two-thirds, for high schools) could take turns taking turns taking lessons in the classroom, while the rest could follow them online.
Children wash their hands before entering school in Johannesburg, South Africa, on July 24 (AP Photo / Denis Farrell)
South Africa, which with 615 thousand infections and 13,502 deaths is the fifth country with the most confirmed infections in the world, at the end of July had imposed the closure of schools for a month: most of the children returned to school on August 24, but with great concerns.
According to the renowned NGO Human Rights Watch, the most serious situation is that of sub-Saharan countries, particularly in eastern and southern Africa, where from March until today, due to the absence of internet and other tools for distance education, approximately half of the children would not receive any kind of education. The data collected in the UNICEF report also shows that children living in rural areas are the most affected by the closure of schools during the coronavirus pandemic: globally, three-quarters of children do not have access to education at a distance they live in remote areas or very poor families.
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