[ad_1]
The school year begins almost half a year after the outbreak of the coronavirus, which forced the closure of schools, and despite the recurrence of infections on the continent.
Many teachers and parents are concerned that the opening of schools will accelerate the spread of the COVID-19 infection, but governments have still decided to start the school year with contact teaching.
French children return to education after almost two months of summer vacation, preceded by two weeks of compulsory schooling.
Teachers and students ages 11-18 will be required to wear masks both indoors and outdoors.
In Belgium, students also start attending school from Tuesday, and in Germany, children went back to the banks last month.
The use of masks will also be mandatory in Greece, where children are expected to return to school next Monday. No more than 25 children will be able to study in classrooms at the same time.
In England and Wales, where children will return to school after a nearly six-month break, authorities initially planned to make masks mandatory, but abandoned that policy last Wednesday.
Under the new guidelines, only high school students and staff ages 11 to 18 are advised to wear face shields in hallways and common areas, as well as in areas where restrictions exist to prevent the spread of the virus in communities. .
Concerns in Spain and France
The Spanish government has required that all children over the age of six wear masks and wash their hands regularly in schools at least five times a day.
Children must be kept within 1.5 meters of each other, and regional governments have hired additional teachers to reduce the number of children in the classroom.
However, many parents and Spanish teachers consider that these measures are not sufficient, or that they were approved too shortly before the start of the school year to be properly implemented.
Mercedes Sardina, spokesperson for the Fuenlabrada teachers union, on the southern outskirts of Madrid, expressed doubts about whether the regional government could hire the promised number of teachers.
She equated the government’s actions with an attempt to hold a wedding in three days, “when nothing was done, not even buying a dress.”
At the time, Sophie Venetitay, a teacher from France who belongs to the main union for secondary school teachers, said: “We have no clear rules when it comes to everything that happens outside the classroom.”
“For example, can we allow a student from the library to borrow a book that has just been returned?” Asked the teacher.
Concerned parents, for their part, said they wanted to avoid a new universal quarantine in the first place.
“It just came to our knowledge then. We will not survive again, there is no question about that,” said Florence, 42, who is raising three children ages 5 to 13 in Nice, France.
Individual schools may close again, but such decisions will be made on a case-by-case basis, French Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer said Monday.
[ad_2]
