Schools to open on 28 September; students aged over 11, staff to wear masks at all times

Malta will re-open its schools on 28 September, the Principal permanent secretary in the Education Ministry Frank Fabri confirmed yesterday.

The health superintendence announced the guidelines for the opening of schools, which Fabri said are based on scientific evidence.

The world has understood that schools cannot remain closed and so protocols have been established, Fabri said.

He noted the ministry held discussions with all the stakeholders and took part in a conference with the World Health Organisation on the matter.

Fabri said that children who live within 1.5 kilometres of their school will be encouraged to walk it. Until now, children who lived within 1km were encouraged to do so, this has been extended to 1.5km, he explained.

He said that the ministry is encouraging the use of digital/electronic ways for homework to be given and received.

Explaining some of the guidelines, Health Superintendent Charmaine Gauci stressed the importance for anyone who is sick, including the staff, to remain home. Parents should check their children’s temperature before they are sent to school, Gauci said. Any children with symptoms should not be sent, so as to reduce any possible spread of the virus.

Gauci emphasised the need to continue wearing masks and to practice social distancing. She said that the number of students in class should be kept at the minimum possible number.

Bubbles should be created to keep the same students near each other as much as possible, so as to limit any possible transmission to a limited number of students, Gauci added.

Children aged three or less are not to wear masks, while children aged between 3 and 11 must wear masks in the common areas. All staff and children aged 11 and over must wear masks at all times.

Protocols have also been established for school transport, with Gauci saying that windows should be kept open at all times and the names of students on each bus will be taken to make contact tracing exercises easier in case one of the students contracts the virus.

Schools were closed in midMarch a few days after the first case of the Coronavirus was registered in Malta.

In reply to a question made by this newsroom on whether the whole classroom will have to quarantine if an educator or student of the same class tests positive for COVID-19, Gauci said that in the case of a confirmed Coronavirus case in a school, the health authorities will ensure that contact tracing takes place, and a designated liaison officer, one per school, will carry out a risk assessment.

She highlighted that record keeping of students is crucial so that it will be easier to handle contact tracing.

Fabri said that although the classrooms in the country are what they are in terms of size, the health authorities are insisting that social distancing is respected as much as possible. This will mean that certain spaces within schools which are not usually used will be used temporarily in order to create a small classroom or group.

Asked as to what the plan is for kindergartens, Gauci remarked that they are currently working on a separate plan for such students as their situation is different.

As for what will be done in situations where parents choose not to send their children to school, Fabri explained that due to this extraordinary situation, the Ministry will be amending the policy related to attendance. “Our aim is to support and help families as much as possible during this time.”

Speaking about the class bubbles, Fabri stressed that it is very important that students are protected within groups as much as possible. “One must understand that every school is different, but the basic principle remains the same for all schools – both primary and secondary schools.”

Fabri said that this will work by adopting a number of measures such as students being assigned to a classroom, rather than teachers being assigned a classroom, in order to mitigate any risks and to keep the same group as much as possible.

Asked whether there are enough transport vehicles to cater for all students with the new guidelines, since there needs to be a lower number of students on each bus, Fabri said that further information on this matter will be provided once the full guidelines are issued. However, the main concept of the procedure is that children who use school transport will always remain with the same group.

In addition, bus operators will be responsible to properly sanitize the van after every journey.

Gauci highlighted that if children have any COVID19 symptoms or if parents are in doubt, it is important that they are not sent to school in order to avoid any sort of risk.

Students who develop symptoms on the way to school, will be kept in a “COVID bay” until they are picked up.

In addition, schools will open earlier this scholastic year in order to avoid the situation in which parents drop their children off all at the same time for social distancing reasons.

Gauci said that desks in classrooms will have to maintain a mandatory 1.5 metre distance apart in order to prevent COVID-19 transmission.