Coronavirus Infections or Not, Europe is Going Back to School

PARIS, KOMPAS.com - Europe is going back to school despite recent upticks in coronavirus infections throughout the continent.

A mother and her three children browsed school supplies in a Paris supermarket selecting multicolored fountain pens, notebooks, and plenty of masks.

The scene reflects the dawn of a new school year across Europe amid the resurgence of coronavirus infections following the Summer holidays.

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European authorities are determined to narrow the learning gaps between the haves and have-nots that have worsened during coronavirus lockdowns.

That means virus or no virus, they are resolute on having children return to the classrooms.

The decision to push ahead with getting children to start class is part of European governments’ effort to get their parents back to work.

Facing a jump in virus cases, authorities in France, Britain, Spain and elsewhere are imposing mask rules, hiring extra teachers and building new desks en masse.

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While the US back-to-school saga has been politicized and chaotic, with a hodgepodge of fast-changing rules and backlash against President Donald Trump’s insistence on reopening, European governments have faced less of an uproar.

And even though the virus has invaded classrooms in recent days from Berlin to Seoul, and some teachers and parents warn that their schools aren’t ready, European leaders from the political left, right and center are sending an unusually consistent message: Even in a pandemic, children are better off in class.

France’s prime minister promised Wednesday to “do everything” to get people back to school and work.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called reopening schools a “moral duty”, and his government even threatened to fine parents who keep kids at home.

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Italy’s health minister abruptly shut down discos this month with one goal in mind — “to reopen schools in September in complete safety”.

As both a parent and a teacher, Mathieu Maillard has plenty to worry about before French schools reopen Tuesday.

The number of virus infections per 100,000 people has grown five-fold in France in the last month.

How will his five-year-old daughter keep a safe distance from preschool friends she’s so excited to see for the first time in six months?

How will he gain the trust of his high school students, from one of Marseille’s roughest neighborhoods, if he has to police their mask use?