Coronavirus Infections or Not, Europe is Going Back to School

Amid an unexpected new wave of infections in hard-hit Spain, officials are scrambling to adapt plans to reopen schools September 4.

They include hiring 11,000 additional teachers, building makeshift classrooms in schoolyards to gain space, and creating “bubbles” of students who are allowed to mix with each other but not with outsiders.

But teachers' unions decry funding shortages and have called for strikes starting next week.

Italy, Europe’s first virus hot spot, is hiring 40,000 more temporary teachers and ordering extra desks, but some won’t be ready until October.

And many parents and teachers remain in the dark about exactly how it will work when most schools reopen September 14.

They notably wonder how overcrowded, run-down schools can ensure one-meter (three-foot) distances and smaller class sizes.

‘’They are in over their heads,’’ said Cristina Tedesco, a parent representative for a high school class in Verona province.

Germany may serve as a cautionary tale, or an example, for its neighbors.

At least 41 of Berlin’s 825 schools reported virus cases as classes resumed this month, and thousands of students have been quarantined around the country.

But Germany is determined not to close schools anew, so they're sending individual students or classes into quarantine instead.

Schools remained shut in most of Africa, Latin America and in some of the world’s most populated nations including India and Bangladesh.

In the US, some school districts are planning a mix of in-person and online learning to help maintain social distancing. Other districts are starting classes online only.

Denmark this week saw an unusual endorsement for reopening schools.

Its second-largest city, Aarhus, sent all high school students home after a spike in virus cases, but the teens pushed back, saying they don’t learn as much online.

Protesting Monday, they held signs reading: “I just want to go to school.”

(Writer: Angela Charlton) 

Source: https://apnews.com/e4a3bf724c92f96814e43103fb0807c5