Eight million students return to school in fear

• Direct Latest news of the coronavirus

• Education: the school feels abandoned before the start of the new year

More than

million students begin this week a school year in which they will not be able to hug each other, or play ball, or share a sandwich.

After half a year without stepping on a classroom, parents will again take their children to school these days with uncertainty and fear of contagion by Covid-19.

The directors of the centers have worked against the clock in the last week to separate the spaces, divide dining rooms, double the entrances and distribute the schedules.

All the family and teacher associations denounce in unison the "delay" and the "lack of leadership" of the

and the CCAA.

Because on the 27th, just three weeks after returning to the classroom, the Executive limited itself to minimally modifying the June protocol, designed more for a

scenario

than for a

.

Now it has established that children wear a mask from the age of six and that bubble groups reach up to eight years, instead of up to 12, as initially expected.

But the course begins without massive tests or PCR, without nurses, without a common absenteeism protocol, without a drop in ratios throughout Spain (although

teachers will

be hired

) and without an

education plan B in

case students have to go back to studying at home like in March, a possibility that Minister Isabel Celaá rules out.

Moreover, in the Conference of Presidents on Friday, Pedro Sánchez agreed with the CCAA that they cannot decide on their own the general closure of their schools and have to consult the others.

A new confinement is, for the moment, out of the question, and a school will only be closed when there is an "uncontrolled" transmission.

In the event that this happens, the Government studies paid leave for parents of children in quarantine, a requirement of regions like

that has served Podemos to put pressure on Sánchez again.

To the left and right of the Executive there is discomfort because none of the two essential objectives that had been set for September have been 100% met: the beginning of the course on time and being present.

On the one hand,

,

,

, the

,

, the

, the

and the

have had to delay or stagger their return to class because they don't have time.

On the other hand, despite the fact that Celaá discarded his initial idea that there would be rotating shifts for some students to study at school and others at home, this possibility has finally been allowed.

Madrid,

, the Valencian Community or Murcia are regions that contemplate semi-presence in some of its stages.

The differences between the Autonomous Communities are very significant and all have agreed on the need to search for more "common criteria", without succeeding.

Even the Ombudsman has had to intervene to urge the central and regional governments to agree.

And it is that the feeling of the educational community is that the administrations "have been passing the buck" to each other and, in the end, the bulk of the task has fallen on the schools.

The minister, for example, has left it up to each center to decide how the study program is adapted to recover all the content not taught during the past year.

What worries most now is not so much academics as health guarantees upon return.

So many families have expressed their intention not to take their children to school that the

has had to coordinate a common action: it will pursue those cases that do not have "a clear and final justification."

Celaá has threatened the insubordinate parents: "Measures will be taken if necessary."

The course is going to be full of misunderstandings, tension and shocks.

The new education law to be debated in Congress will add fuel to the fire of the political confrontation and will bring few practical solutions, as it was written before the pandemic transformed the school.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

• Isabel Celaá

• Education

• Back to school

• Coronavirus

• Covid 19

Education The Government proposes that students wash their hands five times a day and alternate shifts from 4th of ESO

Education Measures for the start of the school year: mask from the age of six, hand washing and temperature control

Education The obstacles to going back to school: teachers and principals warn that the measures "are not realistic"

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