The crisis headquarters of the Federal Ministry of Health announced that it is possible that the beginning of the new school year will be postponed for 15 days due to the unstable epidemiological situation, which means that classes would start on September 15.
Experts from the Federal Ministry of Health have scheduled a meeting with representatives of the competent cantonal ministries in Konjic tomorrow, at which they will discuss the current situation in detail and make final conclusions regarding the beginning of the school year.
“One of our proposals will be that the school year does not start on September 1, but that we start on September 15. The epidemiological situation is not stable at the moment and it would be good if we do not start classes on time,” said the assistant federal minister of Health Goran Cerkez, Klix.ba news portal reports.
The head of the Epidemiology Service of the Federal Public Health Institute, Sanjin Musa, reminded of the cases in Israel and France where, after the opening of schools, the infection spread to several educational institutions. As he pointed out, the opening of schools must be reported in a completely safe way, which requires a wider discussion of all competent institutions.
“Child protection is a priority, but the risk is also the transmission of the virus from schools to households. Opening schools at full capacity is the biggest risk in this situation, while alternative forms of education carry the least risk. However, online teaching cannot be the only acceptable solution and at some ages it is not even applicable, such as students from 1st to 4th grade. Therefore, a combination of these two approaches is the best solution. It is most acceptable to open schools for students up to 4th grade of primary schools, as well as for first-grade high school students, ” said Musa.
