In less than a week, a new school year begins, and because the classes will be held in physical format, discussions about measures to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infections are the order of the day, especially since the proportion of anti-COVID vaccination 19 – an important measure to limit infections – places Romania in last place in the EU.
And although we don’t vaccinate, we don’t test. This is while in Austria, for example, the authorities announced that students and teachers will be tested for coronavirus infection three times a week, regardless of whether they have been vaccinated or not, one of the tests being PCR. Moreover, in Greece, teachers who refuse to be vaccinated against COVID or to be tested regularly before entering classes risk drastic sanctions, such as pay cuts or suspension without pay until immunization.
In Romania, under the law on the protection of personal data, parents will not even be able to find out whether or not teachers in the classrooms where their children study are vaccinated. “The protection of personal data is beyond the desire of the parent, your wish or my wish. Only insofar as the teacher himself chooses to say, to make public this: I am vaccinated or I am not vaccinated. The positions of the parents – which I understand, and I, as a parent, would have this curiosity – are one, the law, sometimes, is different “, explained Sorin Cîmpeanu, Minister of Education. He added that all parents can find out is the statistical situation of vaccinated teachers in the school.
Under these conditions, an unvaccinated or untrained teacher can physically teach in class. “We do not have any distinction between vaccinated and unvaccinated teachers, but I would like to say once again: teachers are the socio-professional category that has best understood the importance of vaccination. The proportion at the last interrogation was over 60% “, Câmpeanu underlined. In absolute terms, this means 185,000 teachers out of over 300,000. “There is no other area in which we have 185,000 vaccinated people. So, the teachers are vaccinated “, Cîmpeanu pointed out. But, as in any other field, he added, there will be teachers who do not want to be immunized, beyond those who have medical contraindications.
What the parents say
Recently, the Minister of Health, Ioana Mihăilă, encouraged parents to ask about the vaccination situation in each school after the beginning of the school year. Mihăilă also said that he finds “at least sad and certainly worrying” the fact that there is a fairly large proportion of unvaccinated teachers.
However, the parents’ representatives say that they cannot claim from the teachers what they do not do themselves. “We and our children are vaccinated in proportion of 20% and teachers, in proportion of 60%. So what would confuse a teacher who is not vaccinated against them, 5% of children who are vaccinated? I mean those who are vaccinated. Or in relation to those who are of vaccination age and come from unvaccinated families? From my point of view, this is a criterion of discrimination. I do not encourage parents to do this. What we need to do is respect all the rules because we risk giving rise to disputes at the level of schools between parents and teachers. Following the same logic, if a teacher is vaccinated and asks a student over the age of 12 if he is vaccinated, and if he is not, what does he do? Does he kick him out of school? The problem should not be thought only at the level of teachers “, is the opinion of Iulian Cristache, president of the Federation of Parents’ Associations, FAP.
The responsibility must be shared, Cristache adds.
“That is, to do everything in our power to prevent the transmission of the virus. If there are families who do not want to be vaccinated, and I respect this right, let’s see if the children wear masks, if they respect the physical distance, if they disinfect themselves after touching every contact surface, which is not very possible. But we must all help prevent infections. I’m not talking about vaccination. So, if we point to the teachers, let’s look at us, the parents. If the teacher is vaccinated and children over 12 are not vaccinated? Or do I tell my vaccinated child to sit on the bench with only the vaccinated child? We reach things that go beyond the normal “, Cristache points out. And that is not the point. “We must all take responsibility. At the level of society, let’s all vaccinate ourselves, and if we don’t want to vaccinate our children, at least we, the adults, should do it, in order to help somehow return to school as we all know it, face to face “, concludes the head of FAP.
On September 8, representatives of the Ministry of Education said they would update the proportion of immunized teachers.
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