Going to school in the autumn without school and classmates?

Schools will open their doors in a little over a  week, but only for some students.

First, on May 18th, the schools will open for first graders, second graders and third graders, and those in the last year of high school, and a week later they will probably open for ninth graders.

Many children are very sad that they will not be able to join them. Sixth-grader Stela Sternad says, »I find this unfair.«

The [Education] Minister Simona Kustec has now announced that in the autumn, too, some lessons will probably be held at a distance.

Although Časoris’s survey shows that education from home did not cause too many headaches, parents and experts are not impressed with it.

Kids need socializing with peers and quality schooling, they say.

They point out that in some places teachers are still sending only instruction sheets, while elsewhere, for example, they have video classrooms and teachers keep to the schedule.

They wonder what will happen to children with special needs who are not attending special institutions. They need guidance in schooling or care if they stay at home.

»Despite the epidemic, school is and should remain much more than just a place to be safe,« says Dr. Klara Skubic Ermenc, President of the Association of Teachers’ Associations of Slovenia.

»Distance education is not homeschooling where parents are the child’s teachers, but guided teaching. At school, children learn to live with others and to form themselves as social beings. Being alone doesn’t do this, and also kills the student’s will to learn. School also encourages the development of broader potentials and creativity. It is imperative that when the epidemiological situation allows, all students will return to school, albeit on a shortened schedule, and experience school in the fullest sense of the word.«

Moreover, says the expert: the school system should immediately begin to prepare for the autumn so that schools will be able to fulfil their mission again under different conditions.

Points to Consider

1. Why is socializing friends so important? 
2. What did you like most while you were learning from home? 
3. And what the least?

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The original version of this article was published on May 3rd.

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