ZAGREB, July 28, 2020 – In the autumn all students will go to school and only schools and classes in which there is a coronavirus outbreak will be closed, Jutarnji List daily said on Tuesday.
The new minister of education and science, Radovan Fuchs, has begun his term with intensive preparations for organising teaching in schools and at faculties as of this autumn, the paper said.
Several consultations with the stakeholders in the system were held this past weekend and this week Fuchs plans to include as many people as possible in the talks on the subject, such as representatives of the education system, central logistical computer networks, epidemiologists, the national COVID response team, and unions.
“The priority is the return of all pupils and students to classrooms as of the new school and academic year. Naturally, everything depends on the epidemiological situation which no one can predict at the moment, but we absolutely want everyone to be in school as much as possible, with all safety measures in place,” the ministry said on a point Fuchs defined as key, a point he said should be worked out in as much detail as possible by the start of the school year.
Fuchs is not in favour of a lockdown, so as of this autumn protection measures could be enforced locally, the daily said. For example, if there is a virus outbreak in a certain area, not all schools in the country would be closed, only a class, school, town or county would self-isolate, depending on epidemiologists’ assessment.
In that case, with measures applying to such a small number of students, central IT centres would be consulted to organise distance teaching, the paper said.
