STA, 4 March 2021 - Secondary school students in years 1-3 are joining their final-year peers Monday as secondary schools fully reopen amid the coronavirus epidemic. However, this does not mean the end of remote learning just yet - under model C, half of them will come to school for a week while the other half will be distance learning at home.
There are no changes to final-year secondary school students, who come to school every day, Education Minister Simona Kustec told the press on Thursday.
There are also no changes to primary schools, with the only difference being the introduction of face masks for children in years 6 to 9 also in their classrooms.
Currently all primary schools children - from year 1-9 - have to wear them only in communal areas such as corridors, halls, or dining areas.
Face masks will also be mandatory from next week for secondary schools, for both students and teachers.
As before, students in the shorter, two-year vocational secondary education continue in-person learning, explained the minister.
Next week will also see the launch of priority vaccination for education workers, first for those older than 50.
All teachers teaching in-person are still required to get tested for coronavirus once a week.
Kustec said the epidemiological situation in kindergartens and schools remains stable.
The latest data shows that 79% of kindergarten children and 83% of staff are in kindergarten, while both figures for primary schools are 90%.
Active infections in kindergartens, primary and secondary schools are currently at 0.16%, with 1% of children quarantining, the minister added.
Health inspectors meanwhile carried out 40 checks related to coronavirus testing at schools and kindergartens last week, establishing no breaches, Deana Potza from the Health Inspectorate told the government's daily Covid-19 briefing.
The findings show that educational establishments provide for testing of their staff and that there were no irregularities in organising nor informing the staff about testing, she explained.
Following around four months of distance learning, primary schools reopened for children in years 1-3 on 9 February, and for the rest of primary schools children on 15 February, when final-year secondary students also returned to school.
Special-needs children returned to in-person school on 5 January, while higher education continues largely remotely.
