The gates of all primary and secondary schools reopened on Thursday after two months of holidays. More than 706,000 pupils are attending primary and secondary schools this year. Over 65,000 of them will be first-year students, up by around 10,000 compared to the previous school year.
President Zuzana Čaputová opened the new school year at Dubová primary school in Bratislava on Thursday, challenging the children to think about saving the planet and their mental health. The head of state believes that this school year will be better than recent ones.
"We all want it to be more standard, so that children can really attend school, study and be in contact with their friends," she said, pointing out that the previous two years were detrimental to education and had consequences in the area of mental health.
Prime Minister Eduard Heger also attended the first day of school celebrations. In his speech, he thanked parents, students and teachers for overcoming the past school year. He pointed out that people have never been as happy about the beginning of the new school year as they are now.
Education, Science, Research and Sports Minister Branislav Groehling noted that the situation seen in the previous school year should not be repeated, as schools will no longer be closed nationwide due to the pandemic. He stated that discussions are currently under way between the Education Ministry, the Health Ministry and Slovakia's Chief Hygienist Ján Mikas on the topic of shortening quarantine for kids whose classrooms are shut down due to positive Covid cases. Currently, a Public Health Office decree is in force that requires 14 days of quarantine, but the Ministry wants to reduce quarantine to seven or ten days. Another measure is the possibility for teachers and children to undergo a PCR test after five days.
According to the head of the Education Ministry, the vaccination rate among school employees currently stands at 68 percent, while in some districts it reaches 70-75 percent. He noted that the parents' interest in self-testing was enormous, with more than 400,000 of them requesting it. About 80,000 parents showed an interest in gargle tests.
