The eventual return of children to the classrooms at the beginning of the new school year is a huge risk and represents a great responsibility of the crisis staffs, the line ministry and the Government of Sarajevo Canton (SC), according to the Cantonal Board of SC Union of Primary Education of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH), Klix.ba news portal reports.
According to the Union, not all the necessary activities have been taken in the past two months in order to ensure the requirements for a safe and quality start of the 2020/2021 school year.
“The health and lives of educators and students, who will spend three to eight hours in schools, depending on the workplace or age, must not be further endangered due to delayed preparations and lack of cooperation between decision-makers and those who implement the decisions. The Union demands that educators in schools and preschools be fully protected during the implementation of all measures and procedures, and above all, they must be provided with a clean and ventilated workspace, sufficient protective equipment, clear instructions on how to act in case of any indications of the existence of Covid-19 and some other important things”, says the president of the Union of Primary Education of SC, Saudin Sivro.
On the other hand, regardless of the coronavirus pandemic, the start of the 2020/2021 school year is uncertain because the collective agreement expires on August 31st, as the Union points out. According to Sivro, without a collective agreement, teaching in schools is not possible, not even distance learning, nor a combined scenario of traditional and online teaching.
Sivro points out that no one asked the teachers for their opinion on the solutions for the beginning of the new school year.
“Teachers, besides health experts, are the most reliable to a take part of the responsibility in the realization of the teaching process in the time of a pandemic with their opinions, proposals and suggestions, in addition to the imposed obligations. With this fact in mind, we reject immediately any form or intensity of criticism towards educators,” Sivro points out.
