How the reopening of schools works

The first to return to the classroom on 6 September will be the South Tyrolean students, the last ones from Campania and Puglia, who will have to wait until 20 September. The declared goal for the new school year is to carry out the teaching activities entirely in person. Even the regional director of the World Health Organization for Europe, Hans Henri P. Kluge, reiterated the importance of the school for “the education, mental health and social skills of children”, underlining the need to maintain face-to-face lessons without interruptions. On August 14, the Italian Ministry of Education sent the new security protocol to schools, but many doubts still remain on the methods of preventing and managing infections and on the interpretation of some rules.

A technical note dated 13 August from the ministry of education confirmed the mandatory nature of the green certification for all school staff (teachers, managers and administrative, technical and auxiliary staff, or Ata), entrusting the principals with the task of daily control. This last point has raised the protests of school administrators so much so as to push the ministries of education and health and the guarantor of privacy to make available an online platform that will allow the secretaries to quickly and easily verify who among the school staff has received at least the first dose of the vaccine or performed a swab. Pending the activation of the platform, which will be available from 13 September, schools will be able to resort to manual controls at the entrance through the Verification C19 app, already used by bars and restaurants.

Those who do not have and do not show the green pass, between the teaching staff and the auxiliary, will be considered “unjustified absentee”, will have their salary suspended and if they do not show it after five days of work, they risk being fired. According to the latest weekly report published by the commissioner for the covid-19 emergency led by General Francesco Paolo Figliuolo, 90.45 percent of school and university staff received the first administration of the vaccine or a single dose. However, there are more than 138,000 unvaccinated teachers, managers and ATA staff, a number that could cause problems in the first days of school. In universities, however, the green pass will also be mandatory for students and researchers, with random checks by the universities.

Despite the trade unions’ request to make tests free for unvaccinated school staff, the Minister of Education Patrizio Bianchi reiterated that the free will be guaranteed only to those who for proven medical reasons cannot get vaccinated. infectious diseases of the Higher Institute of Health (Iss) illustrated in an interview with Corriere della Sera a monitoring plan for elementary and middle school pupils which involves the use of salivary tests to be repeated every two weeks on a sample of ” sentinel ”chosen by the regions. Until 30 September 2021 the price of antigenic tampons will remain at 15 euros for adults and eight euros for children between 12 and 18 years old.

The use of personal protective equipment remains mandatory, except for children under the age of six, for people with disabilities and during sports activities.The safety protocol recommends maintaining an interpersonal distance of at least one meter , unless spaces allow it. The entrance to the classroom is scheduled between 7.50 and 8.30 on predefined routes to prevent students of different classes from meeting. For high school students from large cities there is a second round of admission. Regarding the problem of overcrowded classrooms, which make up about 2.9 per cent of classrooms and are found mainly in technical institutes in large cities, Minister Bianchi stated in an interview that the regulations provide for a number of students between 15 and 27 per class and that the ministry is working to solve the problem with targeted interventions.

A possible case of positivity in the classroom will result in quarantine and isolation measures, which will be different for those who are vaccinated and who are not. According to a circular from the ministry of health, the former will have to comply with the quarantine measures for seven days, at the end of which they will be able to undergo the molecular or antigen test; for students not yet vaccinated, the quarantine will be ten days. Distance learning will be activated for students in isolation.

The # IoTornoaScuola portal is active on the website of the Ministry of Education, which contains all the documents and official news on returning to school, links to the pages of the regional school offices and a section of questions and answers.

Curated by Francesca Morante