Another week of vacation

The government of Janez Janša has extended the measures to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus for a week.

Government spokesman  Jelko Kacin has already confirmed for Televizija Slovenija that primary school students will have another week off, while secondary school students will study at a distance.

In Europe, some places have measures that are even stricter than in Slovenia. But in most countries, they have decided to keep schools open.

Only in the Czech Republic were schools closed on October 14, probably until November 3.

In Germany, France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Ireland, kindergartens and schools remain open.

In Austria, schools are also still open. On Saturday, the government is expected to decide whether high school students will start distance learning.

In Croatia, Education Minister Radovan Fuchs emphasized that schools are not hotbeds of infections and that there is therefore no need for distance learning. He believes it is safer for children to be in school: “If we send children home, they will not be in isolation there.”

UNICEF, UNESCO and the World Bank are urging countries to keep schools open even during a pandemic. They draw attention to the damage caused by the closure of educational institutions around the world, especially in poor countries.

Children in poor countries have been deprived of nearly four months of schooling since the start of the pandemic, and students in richer countries who have studied at a distance have lost six weeks, the organizations warned in a report analysing the situation in 150 countries.

The key is to reopen schools and provide much-needed lessons to make up for lost time, says UNICEF ​​Education Manager Robert Jenkins.

»We don’t have to go far to see what devastation the pandemic has caused in the education of children around the world.« In low- and middle-income countries this is even greater, as access to distance learning is limited.

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The original version of this article was published on October 30th.

English translation courtesy of JL Flanner, Total Slovenia News, an English language website with news from and about Slovenia.