On Monday, SVT Nyheter Blekinge spoke with school principals in Blekinge's five municipalities about the situation regarding distance education and the state of infection.

Karlskrona

In the county's overcrowded municipality, several reports of distance education have come since the start of the spring term, with about eight schools where classes are currently sent home.

- We have classes that have switched to distance education in primary, middle and high school.

But the younger you are, the more support you need around you.

Therefore, we try to be restrictive with distance education at younger ages.

says Henning Fuhrman, operations manager for the primary school.

On Monday morning, only one upper secondary school class at Törnströmska upper secondary school and one at the upper secondary special school had been sent home to the municipality.

- I think it is thanks to upper secondary school students being vaccinated to a greater extent that we have done better so far, says Victor Lindberg Karlsson, operations manager for upper secondary school and special school.

Ronneby

On Monday, the news came that the high school students at Snäckebackskolan will transfer to a distance on Monday.

- It is because there are so many in the staff who are sick at home, or in quarantine.

However, some classes will have local education, where the staff is healthy, says Tobias Ekblad, head of the education administration.

In the construction program at Knut Hahn upper secondary school, students have distance learning in vocational subjects, also here due to the absence of teachers.

And the head of administration does not believe that the peak for distance education has been reached.

- I think it will get worse before it gets better.

More decisions about distance will probably come during this or next week, he says.

Karlshamn

The pandemic has hit the schools in Karlshamn hard, where several classes have been sent home distance education, with the middle school students at Bodestorpsskolan as an example, where the students study from home for the rest of the week.

- There, the spread of infection has been so great among both students and staff, that we saw no other possibility.

Otherwise, we really try to avoid sending home from class four and down, says Tomas Ringberg, head of the development administration.

Tomas Ringberg describes the spread of infection as "messy" in all schools, and flags that more decisions about distance education are underway.

Olofström

Also in Olofström, a decision was made on Monday to send a middle school class home at Vilboksskolan for distance education.

A decision that applies throughout the week.

- We know that it gets more complicated the younger the students are.

It is far from optimal, but we have to cook according to location, says Patrik Håkansson, head of the education administration.

The class is currently the only one in Olofström who studies at a distance, but the head of administration does not rule out that more will need to be sent home.

- We have a high absenteeism in general among both staff and students.

In total, we have about 300 out of 1,430 students away in primary school.

So we follow the development day by day, to see what measures we need to take.

Sölvesborg

Since the start of the spring term, only one high school class has had a period of distance learning.

And all classes had close instruction on Monday morning.

- We make the assessment based on each individual class, and are always ready to go over to distance if required, says Martin Åsman, head of children and education.