(source: Sme)
Even though the Education Ministry has announced that kindergarten and years one to four of primary schools may return from February 8, many will stay closed in towns around Slovakia.
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Pezinok will be first to open its schools on February 10, Trenčín and Partizánske will follow on February 22. Prievidza and Hlohovec will not open and did not specify when the would do so. Other municipalities are preparing for weekend testing to enable children’s return to classrooms.
The municipalities are saying that they still have not received any official documents from the government, or ordinance from the Public Health Authority which states precise rules on how they should launch education again.
“It is not technically possible to ensure all processes in a way that canteens could be opened on Monday along with other necessities to ensure a safe educational process,” said Mayor of Pezinok, Igor Hianik, referring to means of protection and disinfection, as quoted by the TASR newswire.
The Partizánske district has decided that due to deteriorating situation with the pandemic in their district things will not change.
“Partizánske is one of the most-hit districts of Slovakia,” said mayor Jozef Božik, as quoted by TASR. Hygienists recommend that the schools should be open for children of parents working in critical infrastructure.
Moreover, towns and villages still have to organise mass testing, as the condition for the return of children to schools is that employees of the schools as well as parents have a negative test.
PM doubts decision
PM Igor Matovič said during a discussion on Radio Expres that he was against opening schools and kindergartens under the current conditions.
“I would be afraid to relax anything in a time when the British variant is getting significantly stronger,” PM said.
Matovič said he would not participate further in the discussion, as he wants this to be a decision of the coalition partners.
Education Minister Branislav Gröhling reacted by saying that schools would open from Monday as agreed with epidemiologists and the Health Minister Marek Krajčí. He added that all ministers of the ruling coalition agreed with this.
The minister also added that the school semaphore warning system will be launched again.
“This is exactly what we wanted, the regional opening of individual schools and individual sectors,” Gröhling summed up, as quoted by TASR.
