After the closure of universities in Prague, do you look forward to the closure of primary schools?
I think that closing secondary schools is only a matter of time.
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Do you have information on how the directors accept the new measure that they must wear headscarves even in class?
Here in Prague, we were prepared for it to come from Monday, so for us it’s only one working day earlier. Elsewhere, they probably didn’t expect it that much.
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At the beginning of the week, I did a quick survey among the directors within the association. Among other things, I asked what they would say if someone ordered something like this. About 10 percent took it badly that they didn’t like it. About 12 percent appreciate this as helping them know exactly what to do. And the vast majority of directors take the regulation in a way that is not pleasant, but they understand it and will respect it. And that is my attitude.
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As a necessary evil?
Yes. I’m not a medic and I won’t say I understand. And when most medics say veils help, I hope they know what they’re doing.
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But teachers of some subjects will probably suffer. Have you recorded any complaints?
Yes, maybe in gymnastics it would be a problem, but there should be an exception. And even for singing and wind instruments, which makes sense.
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I am glad that this is not mandatory for those small children where the veil would be a really significant problem. For the larger ones, this should lead to teachers teaching less frontally. Lecturing three-quarters of an hour in a veil is madness. So it will lead to children working more independently, in groups. The problem is that even those children do not understand much through the veil. So we will probably prefer a different way of communication than talking directly.
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What about linguists?
This can be a problem for foreign languages. It will depend on how long the measure lasts. But according to my information, it won’t be short.
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Some teachers call for transparent protective shields. Would that help?
Our teachers have shields, but the problem is that hygienists do not recognize shields as a protective aid. But in the summer in Spain, I saw transparent shields that were attached to the bottom of the chin so that they really covered the mouth and nose, functioned as a veil, and were transparent. I’ll try to suggest it somewhere.
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If you could order distance learning, would you do it?
I must say that we have tried to prepare for distance learning and some schools are already ready. We also did a selection process for computers and found out which children needed computers. This process was still underway during September and we are not yet ready to start distance learning. I wouldn’t announce it now.
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But if learning were to be done in veils for a long time and it was a problem, then the transition to distance learning would be offered. The problem is that under the current education law, we are not allowed to declare it. There would have to be some stronger measures.
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And how are the other schools doing?
They will be ready during September, but now I draw on my experience, because the financial support was not announced to us until the end of August, then we had to deal with the selection procedure and find out which children would need to borrow a computer at home. It won’t work in two days either.
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And this is how it happens in other schools. We assumed that we would be ready by the end of September, but this development surprised us a bit with its speed.
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