Vilnius progymnasium wants to start contact training on Monday, but bureaucracy can prevent it

Late on Thursday night, the parents of the Duke Gediminas Progymnasium students received a letter from the president of the school’s parent council, Arūnas Penkaitis, urging the parents to quickly decide on whether to return the children to schools for contact lessons.

The letter sent indicates that the municipality’s progymnasium was chosen as a pilot school for beginners returning to schools for contact lessons.

Children are said to have the opportunity to return to school starting Monday, but this requires the immediate consent of their parents to take the whole-home COVID-19 test starting this Saturday.

Three stages of back to school are mentioned.

1. This weekend, the whole family should take a Covid pile PCR test: the test is taken from the nose, it is less invasive than the nasopharyngeal PCR test (a stick-shaped swab). It will be a common test for the whole family, all people who live together must participate.

2. If the test is negative, the student travels to school on Monday. About every 10 days, children take the test again, probably already at school.

3. If the test is positive, all members of the family will be evaluated individually. And then the decisions are already made.

Arūnas Penkaitis, when asked if quarantine restrictions would not be violated in this way, stated that the permit was harmonized:

“Nothing will be harmed, because the Government will allow it, the Prime Minister himself and the Ministry, etc.” Someone will be the one who will open the door to a new life, be it us or others.

For the approval of the experts and the Government is, the only question for which school – if we do not want, so to speak. Will we stay on the remote until April, May? ”, He replied in one of the letters.

Advised by the Board of Experts

Povilas Poderskis, director of the Vilnius City Municipal Administration, told a press conference on Friday that representatives of the municipality participated in a meeting with the Council of Government Experts earlier in the week and received a proposal to do a project. pilot at a school of your choice.

Therefore, according to him, the decision was made to undertake a pilot education with the aforementioned Progymasia of Prince Gediminas.

It was selected on the basis of several criteria: the appropriate size of the school, the availability of three branches, which gives flexibility to decisions and allows only part of the facilities to be opened.

According to P. Poderskis, if the right decisions are made, which must be made by both the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport (ŠMSM) and the Ministry of Health (SAM), it will be possible to start primary education this Monday.

However, a municipal spokesman could not say if these decisions would be made on Friday and the weekend.

“If we win the war with the bureaucracy and we manage to make all the necessary decisions that allow the implementation of pilot education in some classes that agree to it, it will be possible to start contact education as of next week,” he said. said.

Investigate each farm

Progymnasium student family farms are required to undergo Covid-19 cumulative PCR testing.

It is true that this method is not currently approved, but according to P. Podersky, additional validations can be performed by decision of the Emergency Operations Manager.

“The cumulative tests are very similar to our usual tests for COVID-19, except that the rod is not inserted into the nasopharynx, but rather wets the nasal cavity.

After conducting such a test, putting all those sticks in a tube and examining it, the entire home is examined, ”said the representative of the municipality.

This method of determining COVID-19 was, according to him, proposed by the Board of Experts.

The success of the project is beyond doubt

If contact education can start from Monday, February 8, the first week will be dedicated to monitoring whether such training is bearing fruit.

Then the students will go on vacation and the representatives of the municipality, according to P. Poderskis, will have time if necessary to improve the training of the pilots.

“Yesterday we contacted the Prince Gediminas Progymnasium Parent Council, they had a wide range of questions and that time zone we presented was a bit concerning.

But, in principle, the study itself is not new, <...> It is very simple and in some countries children even do the research themselves under the supervision of a public health specialist, a teacher, ”said P. Poderskis.

When asked if parents agreed to have their children go to school on Monday, he said there was some resistance, but that the project should be successful.

We are faced with a situation where some families are abroad, by the sea, on farms.

“We are facing a situation where some families are abroad, on the beach, on farms, not everyone wants to do these tests at all, there is some resistance,” he said.

However, according to Podersky, the municipality has no doubts about the success of this project. It is believed that this example will also gradually open other educational institutions.

“In total, there are about 900 beginners in the school, most of them will have that desire and that opportunity, for this project to be successful, because we would test the model itself, how it works,” he emphasized.

Will be tested regularly

Asked if the teachers of this progymnasium will be vaccinated in order of priority, P. Poderskis stated that this will not be the case, but that the teachers of the school will be constantly evaluated by PCR tests.

“Due to the vaccination of teachers, it starts next week and will continue for some time, of course, teachers only get full immunity after a month,” he noted.

“That would save us time, because testing would also be done and we could get schools back to school sooner, so we wouldn’t need a full vaccination and we could detect virus outbreaks more quickly through testing.”

School representatives: no pressure

Parents of children who did not understand such urgency had a series of questions.

First of all, that is why this pilot project needs to be implemented so urgently, even if the children start school from Monday, they will have a week off of vacation.

Confusing and chaos: It is not yet clear if those who choose not to take the test this weekend will have the opportunity to continue their studies remotely.

Director of Vilnius Duke Gediminas Progymnasium Rimantas Rameika 15 minutes He said the decision has yet to be made, that only preparatory work is underway.

“We are doing preparatory work, as it would be if we had to start the educational process.

That we would be prepared if that solution existed. <...> There is no concrete decision on whether it will be Monday or Tuesday through Wednesday. It is the government’s prerogative to make a decision.

They tell us that we have such an opportunity to start a safe education, we inform our parents as if it were that of Monday and we are waiting for some decisions from the Government ”. 15 minutes commented the school principal.

According to him, there was no pressure on the parents, they just wanted to ask them if it would be possible for everyone to try this weekend so that “clean” people could come to school.

Also later with 15 minutes contacted progymnasium council member Andrius Šiaučiūnas, who assured that parents are not really being pressured.

“As a member of the School Council of the Progymnasium Duke Gediminas of Vilnius and a member of the VKGP School Parent Council, I can assure you that no pressure has been exerted, has not been made or will be exerted on parents, and that such information does not correspond to reality, “he wrote.

A member of the school council also indicated that two fundamental works have been carried out:

• The school community learned about the described pilot project and its implementation principles.
• They were asked if the parents (their children) would agree to participate in the pilot project.

I can assure you that there is not, has not been and will not be any pressure on parents.

It was discussed in the government for about a month.

Rasa Jakilaitienė, a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė, told BNS that the decision to resume primary education in one of the Vilnius schools has been debated for about a month.

“It is being discussed in individual ministries, in the Government itself and with the Council of Experts. The council of experts has been discussing all this for a month (…) the scheme has been presented, the specialists have been preparing, working and starting “, said.

According to R. Jakilaitienė, this issue was last discussed in the Government on Tuesday and then it was decided to carry out a test.

He confirmed that a group testing approach could be applied to them and their families before enrolling the newcomers.

“The pilot is there for you to see how what you came up with works (…) A Vilnius school has been chosen, and students and teachers will be evaluated,” said the representative of the Prime Minister.

R. Jakilaitienė also pointed out that for the project to be implemented, the Government will have to change the decree regulating the quarantine regime, as it currently prohibits swarming, and the resumption of classroom education would mean that this would inevitably be done. .

That’s what a pilot is so you can see how what you came up with works.

The Minister of Health Arūnas Dulkys will also need to sign a separate order regarding permission to study in the classrooms.

According to the representative of the Prime Minister, it has not yet been agreed exactly when the Cabinet of Ministers will choose to make this decision / This is expected to be done next week.

A.Veryga had questions

Former Health Minister Aurelijus Veryga shared the story on Facebook on Friday. In his opinion, the most questionable is the intended form of testing.

“What’s interesting about the PCR group test mentioned here? Maybe I have missed something, but if it is the same group PCR test method (where multiple samples are put together and tested as one), then I lost my hearing from that had already been declared validated.

If it is not validated, it cannot be used ”, asked the former minister in his account.

ŠMSM representatives 15 minutes In response to whether the school’s plans to begin primary contact teaching at the elementary school starting Monday have been agreed with the ministry, he sent a short comment:

“A pilot project to resume primary education in one of the capital’s schools is being considered, and a government decision must be taken in the near future,” the response said.