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It was announced at a government meeting on Monday, December 9. the current recommendation to continue direct preschool, preschool and primary education, but it is recommended to attend preschool and preschool educational institutions only for those children whose parents do not have the opportunity to work remotely.
However, some municipalities in the country have already introduced even stricter individual quarantine restrictions. In these counties, kindergartens are suspended for a time, and access to so-called “on-call” groups may require not only writing an application to the administration of the institution, but also obtaining a special certificate from your workplace. that indicates the reason why you cannot work remotely.
Not everyone has access to kindergartens
Ukmergė County is one of the few in Lithuania, where, after assessing all morbidity indicators, the municipality has decided to further tighten quarantine restrictions at the local level.
Vaidotas Kalinas, Head of the Department of Education and Sports of the District Municipality of Ukmergė, tells tv3.lt that since December 9, a two-week restriction regime has been introduced and all preschools are closed during this period.
The exception only applies to children whose parents can’t really work from home, and there will be two special groups in every kindergarten in town to care for them.
“The rules are very simple: parents must submit a request to the administration and managers of the institution, submitting a request with a certificate from the employer on the need to work in the form of contact.
If both parents are working and the mother does not want to take sick leave due to childcare, both parents must provide such certificates from the employer. The situation is that these measures are taken to stop the spread of the virus as much as possible. In one way or another, all our kindergartens are related to Covid-19 ”, explains the representative of the district municipality of Ukmergė.
V. Kalin admits that not everyone likes that decision, which is why some parents boldly express their dissatisfaction. However, depending on the interlocutor, each case is reviewed on an individual basis, so exceptions may apply even during a strict quarantine.
“You see how it is, there are people who say that it has been needed for a long time, but today one of the parents asked me if I think the virus exists. Probably the opinions are diverse.
If necessary, the Ukmergė District Municipality provides childcare services. The directors (kindergartens) are really very human, they will assess each situation individually. If necessary, childcare will definitely be provided, ”says the head of the Department of Education and Sports of the Ukmergė District Municipality.
Not everyone rushes to kindergartens during quarantine
Another municipality applying similar measures is the Kėdainiai district. However, the local hardening quarantine was introduced here much earlier, at the end of November, until now, kindergartens in the city are closed only until December 13.
Julius Lukoševičius, head of the Education Department of the Kėdainiai District Municipality, says that there are currently special “supervision” groups throughout the city, and access to them is a bit easier than in Ukmergė.
“It just came to our attention then. When it was spring, it was necessary to present certificates from the workplaces, now this has been abandoned. But the application must be completed by the parents.
If there are no opportunities, parents work, then it is allowed. We are from the municipal budget and we maintain these groups, ”says the representative of the municipality about the situation in the Kėdainiai district.
According to J. Lukoševičius, so far there are not many parents who want to take their children to kindergartens, only a few dozen of them are in the whole city. However, recent surveys suggest that the number of preschools will increase.
“But the teams work almost as many as children, because according to the current recommendations of the operations manager, it is not possible to combine groups. There is one child in the groups, two or three each.
That situation ends in our municipality on Sunday. If the emergency committee will consider that question here, I cannot answer. But we are seeing mood swings, kindergartens are conducting surveys; from Monday there will be many more children who want to take them to these institutions, ”says J. Lukoševičius, head of the Education Department of the K Disdainiai District Municipality.
There are not many kindergartens of this type.
Lina Bagdanavičienė, president of the Lithuanian Association of Directors of Early Childhood Education Institutions, assures tv3.lt that, to her knowledge, most of the kindergartens and other preschool institutions operating in Lithuania operate in accordance with the Government’s recommendations. and they still accept anyone.
“It can be an initiative of the individual municipalities that assess the risk of morbidity and can decide how to reduce student flows. Such units as far as I know. I don’t have statistics, but there really aren’t many, ”says L. Bagdanavičienė.
According to her, the new recommendations have not yet reduced the number of visitors to state kindergartens and stricter restrictions may be needed to achieve the actual desired result.
“If parents can already work remotely, they only need their own conscience to protect their children.
What practice shows, as long as it is not mandatory, until the document is issued to not accept or restrict access to children whose parents work directly, they cannot work remotely, I think so ”, explains the president of the state association of kindergarten leaders.
It is worth looking for other ways to organize the educational process
Lina Jankauskaitė, a board member of the Association of Non-State Early Childhood Education Institutions and director of the network of private kindergartens, also states that most non-state kindergartens do not enforce strict prohibitions, but try to inform children parents about all possible risks.
“We have communicated to our community that, as far as possible, do not allow children to be taken to kindergarten. There really are. We cannot force others to do so.
Especially if you have a multi-year-old child. Yes, you can work from home, but just like you cannot work when there is a child around who requires attention, communication and play. Therefore, we do not ask for this until the quarantine conditions have been tightened, ”says L. Jankauskaitė.
In his view, if it happened that other districts had to return to a stricter quarantine, the ideal would be that the preschool educational institutions did not apply cardinal restrictions, but rather chose a different, somewhat freer way of organizing work.
“If it needs to be adjusted, and it could happen, maybe we should go to the combined option, part time from home, part contact.
The worst thing that happens after leaving kindergarten. Sometimes I joke that it is better to bring a child to kindergarten than not to have the opportunity to combine and take a neighbor one day, another day to something else and thus increase the number of contacts.
To prevent that child from being discarded, because we all know that children need a stability that their parents cannot provide in a situation where they have to work from home or lose their jobs ”, explains a member of the board of the Association of Non-State Preschoolers.
Currently, the quarantine in the country has been extended until December 31.
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