While in Italy the return to school after the holiday break has ended up at the center of the political confrontation, with the president of Campania De Luca pressing to postpone the reopening for 20-30 days, the Government to keep the bar straight on returning to the desks between 7 and 10 January and the refusal of the principals to the Dad hypothesis only for unvaccinated pupils, the comparison with other countries reveals different “recipes” and strategies. From the obligation to wear a mask to the increase in weekly tests, passing through more drastic measures, such as postponements of the opening or distance learning (Dad). Here are some of the solutions put in place.
United States
In the various states, the aim is to speed up the tests of pupils and staff, but without excluding, as a last resort, the return to Dad. While the guidelines of the CDC (Centers for disease control and preventions) suggest the use of masks.
TO Washington, DC., all staff and 51,000 public school students must upload a negative test result to the district website before returning to class on Wednesday, Jan. 5. There California has pledged to provide free home test kits to all of its 6 million public school students.
In Massachusetts, Michigan and Washington are delaying classes by a few days to allow for testing. Schools in New York City, the country’s largest borough, will reopen on schedule, but with more tests for the roughly one million students. And instead of quarantining an entire class if one person tests positive, all classmates will be provided with quick tests to take at home. In case of a negative result, you can go back to the classroom the next day, 7 days later you will have to do another one.
Canada
In some states such asOntario, which is home to the federal capital Ottawa, authorities are considering whether or not to reopen schools in attendance, worried about the intensity of the Covid epidemic. The most likely scenario is the use of Dad for the first two weeks of January.
France
Schools will reopen in attendance as planned, but the government has decided to strengthen the “contact tracing” policy, which will subject students to three tests in 4 days if there is a positive in the classroom. Parent-teacher meetings will be held at a distance. For the teachers’ union, however, the resurgence of the epidemic linked to Omicron does not allow a return to the classroom in “tranquility”. The mask requirement came back into effect last November.
United Kingdom
Post-Christmas reopening of schools confirmed in the next few days, despite the wave of infections, but with a strengthening of the health caution protocols for children. Also in England, as in the rest of the country, the obligation of a mask in the classroom is triggered for middle and high school students, but also that of a negative test to return from holidays and a double weekly control swab for all (in Wales the tests will be 3). Test kits will be provided free of charge to various institutes.