ZAGREB, September 12, 2020 – Science and Education Minister Radovan Fuchs has said that if the local epidemiological situation proves stable, local authorities can decide that school children do not need to wear face masks when at school.
“There is pressure from a group of people, parents, who disagree with the recommended measures. Some people do not agree with children having to wear face masks at school, so they come up with various arguments,” Fuchs said in an interview with Croatian Radio on Saturday, noting that the decision to wear face masks in certain situations was based on the recommendations of the World Health Organisation.
“You cannot make everyone happy. We are doing as we are told by epidemiologists. If the epidemiological situation in a county or a town is very stable, a decision can be made locally on children no longer having to wear face masks,” the minister said, adding that the education model for the coronavirus epidemic was flexible so that everyone involved could act and so that children could spend as much time as possible at school and have live classes.
Asked about children who do not attend religious instruction but due to a ban on the mixing of children from different classrooms have to stay in their classroom and attend religious education, Fuchs said it was a typical example of non-continuation of reform processes and a problem that had existed from before and had become even more evident in the current crisis.
He added that he agreed the problem had to be solved and instructed school principals to organise classes as flexibly as possible in order to accommodate children as much as possible while respecting epidemiological measures.
The minister also commented on a union proposal that due to warm weather and face masks, some schools be allowed to shorten classes to 30 minutes.
“Any good and clever suggestion is welcome… but I would like to warn about one thing – shortening classes by five minutes eventually means 11% less classes in a school year,” he said.
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