The cabinet has decided that schools will remain open. However, additional measures are needed to keep schools open in a responsible manner. For example, children with mild cold complaints are no longer welcome at school and it is urgent advice for educational staff and students in the upper secondary level to do a self-test twice a week. These measures will take effect from Monday and will apply for at least three weeks. The PO Council thinks it is good that education can continue because going to school together with classmates is crucial for the development of children.
Chairman of the PO Council Freddy Weima: ,,I am pleased that the cabinet has decided that schools can remain open. We have seen before that school closures have negative consequences for children. Not only because of possible learning delay, but also because there are concerns about their well-being. This does not alter the fact that we understand that schools are in an incredibly complicated situation in which it is inevitable that classes are temporarily at home and sometimes entire schools are temporarily closed. The tightened measures also demand a lot from schools and their employees, who are sometimes concerned about their health. It is a continuous shift and there is a lot on the plate of teaching staff. I have deep respect for that and appreciate the unbridled effort.”
Additional and stricter measures
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Urgent advice to set walking routes at school, to use staggered break times and to cohort students (divide them into groups). If the cohortation affects the regular teaching time, coordinate this with your childcare partner in good time.
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Students come to school by themselves as much as possible. This is of course not possible with young children, they will then be brought to school by a maximum of one parent/guardian.
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Urgent advice for teaching staff and pupils in the upper years of primary education, secondary education, sbo (groups 6 to 8) and pupils in VSO to take a self-test twice a week. This applies to both staff members and students who are immune or not immune. The distribution of the self-tests is being scaled up, schools can use the self-tests apply here.
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Urgent advice for students from group 6 to wear mouth caps in the hallways. It is compulsory for educational staff to wear a face mask in the hallways. The mask is allowed to take off in class.
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Children under the age of twelve stay at home with mild complaints (including snot bubbles). In secondary special education, it is compulsory to wear face masks in the hallways (with the exception of students where this is not possible).
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The measures apply for a period of three weeks and will come into effect on Monday 29 November. If schools need more time to implement the measures, there is that space.
Education staff protection
Together with other educational organizations the PO Council sent a letter to the ministers of Education, Culture and Science and VWS in which they draw attention to the protection of teaching staff. The educational organizations ask the cabinet to look into the possibility of giving educational staff who received the second vaccination more than six months ago – after the healthcare staff – priority for a booster shot.
Protocols
The PO Council will start updating the protocols as soon as possible. We depend on the publication of the corona service document from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. There is also always coordination with the trade unions and education and parent organizations. The PO Council will publish the new protocols and Q&As early next week on lesopafstand.nl. We will keep you informed via the website.
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