The reopening of schools in 22 European countries has not led to any significant increase in coronavirus infections among children, parents or staff, according to a meeting of EU education ministers.
However the video conference meeting of education ministers from around the EU on Monday May 18 also heard that as schools have only been open for two weeks it may be too early to see any problems.
In a press conference after the meeting, Blaženka Divjak, the minister for education in Croatia which holds the EU’s rolling presidency, said there had been no negative impact of opening schools in those countires.
“So far we haven’t heard anything negative about the reopening of schools but it is probably too early to have final confusions about that,” said Ms Divjak, in answer to a question from the Guardian newspaper.
She said: “What has been emphasised very strongly is that these schools have very highly guarded conditions like smaller groups than in normal classes, usually groups of around 15 and … very close cooperation with health ministries and epidemiological services on a national level to provide schools and teachers and parents with very detailed recommendations on how to deal with the new situation.
The vast majority of the reopened schools have been open for just a fortnight, prompting Ms Divjak, to suggest that the positive results need to be treated with some caution.
Of the 22 countries where schools have reopened over the last month, 17 have only allowed children to return to kindergarten settings, primary schools and final years of secondary level as part of a tentative lifting of the lockdowns imposed to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.
Twenty countries have ensured that pupils leaving secondary school have been sit exams in amended formats.
Denmark became the first European country to tentatively reopen its nurseries, kindergartens and primary schools on 15 April after a month-long closure despite significant resistance from parents who accused the government of treating their children as “guinea pigs”.
This update comes as France’s education minister told parents it was more of a risk keeping their children at home than sending them to school now the strict lockdown had ended.
However, just one week after 40,000 primary and nursery schools reopened, Jean-Michel Blanquer revealed that 70 cases of Covid-19 had been diagnosed.
In an interview with RTL radio, Blanquer said: “It’s inevitable this sort of thing will happen, but it’s a minority.
“In almost all the cases, this happened outside of the school.”
Blanquer said the schools concerned had closed but reiterated that not going to school was more of a risk than the virus.
“Many doctors say it is less dangerous to go to school than to stay at home. Our children mustn’t be the victims of collateral damage of our health measures,” Blanquer said.
“This phenomenon is my main worry and above all it affects children from disadvantaged backgrounds. We have to get society used to going back to school. It’s not a minor issue; it’s fundamental.”
