Return to normal school days for first time since March
It’s 1 September, and that means that pupils went back to school today, some for the first time since the corona crisis hit Belgium
‘Moving heaven and earth’
Schools have had to take many measures to ensure a safe environment for both teachers and pupils, including putting classes in bubbles, allowing for social distancing as much as possible and ensuring that hygiene recommendations can be followed. All teachers and staff and all secondary school pupils must wear facemasks.
Should teachers or children test positive for the coronavirus, then the entire class will be sent home. Contact tracers in the educational system will then go to work on a risk analysis, after which some or most pupils might be able to return to the classroom. Detailed information about going to school this year can be found on the Flemish government’s education platform.
I was not in favour of closing the schools when the crisis hit, and I had to move heaven and earth to get them open again
While for pupils it’s a new beginning, for educators it’s “the big finale,” Flemish education minister Ben Weyts told VTM. “We have been working on this for months. I was actually not in favour of closing the schools in the first place when the crisis hit, and I had to move heaven and earth to get them open again.”
While many pupils returned to school part time last May, no one was allowed to go back five days a week. And some were not allowed to return at all. “Now we are ready down to the smallest detail,” continued Weyts. “If anyone has even the slightest concern, they should visit the website, where they can find detailed guidelines for any circumstance. This should put the fears of parents, teachers and school principals to rest.”
School is starting under “code yellow” of a three colour-code plan for the year. Should the infection rate shoot up, Flanders could call a code orange, or even red. Municipalities can also call a code orange or red and limit the number of pupils in school just in their own areas.
One of the requirements for classrooms is that windows remain open as much as possible. The better air circulation, the less concentration of contaminants in the air indoors. And one father in Belgium has gone a step further: Prince Laurent bought carbon dioxide metres for his children’s classrooms.
Laurent, the brother of King Filip, consulted Flemish virologist Marc Van Ranst about ways he could help protect his children when they go back to school. Laurent is particularly careful about the virus because he wife, Claire, was sick with it in the spring.
Van Ranst told him that a CO2 metre could be helpful. “We breathe out CO2, and a metre can indicate how much of it is in the room,” Van Ranst told VRT. “When someone is infected with the virus, all of this exhaled air provides the perfect conditions for it to spread. If there is very little CO2, then the virus doesn’t get the chance to jump to another person. A lot of CO2 means that the room needs to be aired out.”
If the subject, the space and the weather allow it, teachers should really take lessons outside
“We aren’t trying to act out of fear,” Laurent told VRT. “We just want the children in the class to be able to profit from this simple technology.”
In fact, followed up Van Ranst, lessons at school should be given out of doors when possible. “If the subject, the space and the weather allow it, teachers should really do it,” he told VRT. “When lessons are outside, the chance of spreading any kind of germ plummets. It can literally almost eliminate it. This can be done on the playground or, if possible, a park or forest. I’m thinking mostly of primary school here, where you could teach biology or geography this way.”
Of course there are limits, admits the KU Leuven virologist, who has become a household name since the start of the corona crisis. “But say if there is a big park near your school, then you should think about what you can do there. Every hour outside the classroom, is an hour gained.”
Photos: ©Dirk Waem/BELGA
