The Slovak Teachers Chamber (SKU) expects a very demanding school year again, said its vice-president Soňa Puterková. "The measures presented by the Education Ministry aim at maintaining classroom-based teaching for as long as possible. This will require a complex organisation of the teaching process and extraordinary commitment on the part of teachers and especially head teachers," said Puterková, adding that it will be difficult to provide education which will be carried partly in classes and partly remotely.
"Although teachers are largely vaccinated, and thus protected from a severe course of the disease, only a small percentage of students are inoculated," said the SKU vice-president, noting that voluntary testing will not guarantee that pupils coming to school will not be infectious.
Last week, the Education Ministry announced its plan for autumn, which can be summed up in three points:
1. Schools will not be closed across the board
2. Pupils will not have to show a negative test
3. If a student tests positive, the school should remain open. Only non-vaccinated students from the class will go into quarantine
This means that inoculated students should theoretically remain in school even if the virus breaks out there. Nevertheless, the school will need to be able to provide teachers, which could be a problem. Education Minister Branislav Gröhling said that he expects a quick wave of the delta variant. However, in such a case, the number of unvaccinated students at home could make up a vast majority and the school will have a priority to provide distance learning for the quarantined majority. Thus, teachers would need to focus on them, endangering the capacity to provide in-school learning for the vaccinated students.
