Schools in Poland are temporarily closed to prevent further spread of the coronavirus Sars-CoV-2.
“The system was never built for this situation,” says our principal. He is familiar with new forms of learning. He sees the situation as an opportunity to further advance the digitalisation of teaching. For many young teachers this is the future. “This will not stop if the schools reopen in July,” he believes. A lot of experience has just been gathered and a lot is being tried out. “There will be new solutions that we don’t even know about yet.”
There are already a number of multimedia offerings, including learning apps for smartphones, school offerings on television, math exercise pages or explanatory videos on the Internet, which have long been used to explain subjects such as chemistry or math to students.
Alternatively, our students can also have an immunity card issued in order to continue to enter the school grounds. We have ordered the necessary antibody tests for all students from an importer, they should arrive next week. As long as all students have been tested, we can continue with individual courses before the official start of the school.
The state government does not require our school to wear masks for students and teachers. A mouth and nose protector could be worn during breaks, but this has to be brought by the students themselves and is not provided by the school, according to a hygiene plan issued by the Ministry of Education on Thursday. The ten-page paper is to supplement the school’s own hygiene plans.
According to the paper, it is not necessary to wear masks in class, as the safety distance is guaranteed. Among other things, this is to ensure that a maximum of 16 pupils are allowed in a classroom at the same time. Hand disinfection is only provided for in exceptional cases. Physical education is still not provided, as there are currently no regulations that guarantee protection against infection.
All final examinations will take place, this applies to vocational and general education schools. Physical education will no longer take place this school year. It will be taught according to the principle of half a class, so that only a limited number of pupils will be present at any one time. Digital learning will be further promoted, tasks will be distributed to the pupils by the class teacher, said the Minister of Education.