The first of September holidays are planned to be held live in schools, but educational institutions are encouraged to take care of safe distances and not hold mass holidays due to the threat of the coronavirus.
"We want the school year, and we hope it will be, to start on the first of September - with the exception of freshmen in high schools, for whom the school year will start on September 14," - at the press conference Beautiful said Minister of Education, Science and Sports Algirdas Monkevičius on Tuesday.
"The simplest things are to avoid mass celebrations where it is difficult to comply with the safety requirement, to avoid contact, to keep a safe distance to reduce as much as possible any risk of contagion," the minister said.
According to him, recommendations on how to organize the September XNUMXst celebration have already been prepared, are currently being coordinated with epidemiologists and will be made public in the near future.
The minister said that the first of September should be "festive", but it is recommended to organize the celebration at different hours or in several places, it is recommended, if possible, to do it outside, to divide it into smaller groups.
"The hours may differ, the place may also differ, if the weather permits, it would be nice to do it outside," said the minister.
According to A. Monkevičius, it should be a "calm, concentrated choice".
In schools - flow management, security measures
According to Jolanta Navickaitė, Director of the General Education Department of the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports, it will not be mandatory for students to wear protective equipment covering their nose and mouth during classes, but it may be recommended between classes if the school does not have the possibility to separate the flow of students.
"Currently, there is no such requirement - students do not need to wear protective equipment covering their nose and mouth during classes," said J. Navickaitė.
Teachers can work without protective equipment if they maintain a distance of two meters from the children, but if this is not possible or if they want to get closer, they must wear protective equipment.
The representative of the Ministry emphasized that although there is no longer an obligation to measure temperature, individuals should be aware and not go to educational institutions when sick.
According to J. Navickaitė, one of the most important tasks for educational institutions is stream management, so that each class has its own premises, considering different lesson times for different streams.
"All this is done so that we minimize the contact between different classes or streams in schools and if a case of COVID-19 infection is detected in the school, it would be easier to trace the contacts," she said.
According to A. Monkevičius, children should be talked about the need to be careful, use measures that stop the spread of the virus.
"It is very important that students know where to wash their hands, how they can safely arrive at school, move around school and leave school, how to use disinfectant liquid, how classrooms will be ventilated at school, how and where students will spend their breaks," he said. J. Navickaitė.
It is being considered that students could eat in different streams or food could be served to them in classrooms.
Schools are also encouraged to prepare for the situation should cases or the risk of the spread of the coronavirus be identified at school.
"We are asking the heads of schools - some of them have already done it, thought it through, others are still preparing to do it - a very thought-out communication plan, means of how the administration should communicate with parents, with guardians, with students, with teachers," said the minister.
Public health specialists will help schools in all municipalities prepare for the school year and organize work safely. A. Monkevičius emphasized that municipalities and health professionals will have to take care of all educational institutions and not leave them alone to solve problems.
Preparing for distance education
1850 laptops have been purchased and distributed to teachers, and distance education content is being prepared.
According to the Minister of Education, schools are provided with different models of the educational process, as well as the possibility of combining contact education with distance learning. This is planned to be left up to each school.
It is being considered that schools could be allowed to start distance education without waiting for the risk to increase.
According to the minister, currently most schools have also chosen one distance education platform each so that students do not have to wander between roads.
"Today, as far as I know, over 80 percent of schools have chosen a single common platform, while others were still debating which platform to choose," said A. Monkevičius.
Teachers are being trained to acquire digital competences.
On Tuesday in Kaunas, representatives of the Ministry met with representatives of municipal education departments and schools and discussed with them the most important changes and the biggest challenges that await in the coming school year.
During this week, representatives of the municipalities will discuss this information with their educational institutions and agree on specific solutions for each educational institution.
The author is Austėja Masiokaitė-Liubinienė
