See you… at the start of the school year?
Satchels won’t come out until summer for the majority of students in Italy, Spain, in the Balkans (except Croatia), Ukraine, Latvia and Lithuania, where vacations are advanced by one month, to 1er June. Ditto in Ireland, where schools and universities will remain closed until the start of the new school year. Or in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, when other schools in the country are free to reopen as of May 15. Everywhere, however, exceptional reception will be provided: as in Spain, for pupils in difficulty and those under the age of six whose two parents cannot telework.
Back to the map elsewhere?
After have closed in dispersed order, European schools have reopened, or will reopen, in the same cacophony: very gradually depending on the level and with classes in reduced numbers between 10 and 15 students per class, depending on the country. The little danes have set foot in their establishments in mid-April; but the middle and high school students won’t be back until next week… Austrians and certain Germans also went back to school on May 4. The Czech (terminal only), Swiss, Dutch and Croats will do it this Monday 11. The Belgians in a “diploma” year (the equivalent of our CP, 6e and final) will wait until May 18; the others will continue the distance learning courses. The Polish could resume on May 25 and Romanians next week. The British will know more on Sunday, but it is already rumored that 10-11 year olds should be the first to resume in early June.
A European patchwork that should puzzle the little ones Swedish. Their country is not confined, they never really deserted classes, except when cases of Covid-19 appeared in their ranks … Ditto for Hungarian, whose schools have not officially closed, although classes have been largely deserted in recent weeks.
What do parents say?
Same reluctance as in France. If the authorities everywhere demand respect for barrier gestures and the wearing of masks, at least in the courtyard, this is not always enough to reassure families. In Switzerland, where the nurseries have already reopened, the resumption of classes, from May 11, is disapproved by 58% of parents, according to a survey carried out by the site 24 hours.ch. Half of them (52%) point to the difficulty in respecting hygiene rules in establishments and a quarter (23%) fear the risk of contamination during journeys.
Parents’ movements have also emerged in the Czech Republic (where the decision to send their child to school is left up to parents), in Denmark … In Norway, many children have still not set foot in schools, reopened on April 27. Desertion is particularly strong (over 60%) in disadvantaged neighborhoods.
What about the teachers?
Teacher unions everywhere are also protesting against a premature recovery. In the United Kingdom, the Association of school and college leaders did not wait for London’s decision to veto revival before early June. In Italy, the authorities keep hammering the decision difficult
to interrupt classes for five months aims above all to protect children’s health “,
but also that of teachers, among the oldest in Europe: 60% of them are over 50, according to the OECD.
Not sure either that Polish teachers appreciate: their government does not exclude to end their summer vacation, to better prepare for the start of the school year.
Upset exams?
Ignoring the warnings of the Hungarian Medical Association, the ultraconservative government maintained the baccalaureate and certificate exams, which started on Monday, at ten students per class and with compulsory masks. Officially, the 150,000 candidates were free to postpone taking their exams in October … But few seem to have made this choice. No big change either for the Germans, whose exams resumed on April 20, and the Czechs, who will take the bac in June. Ditto for the Poles whose certificates and baccalaureate are maintained, but without oral. In Latvia, the patent is canceled, with only three subjects, in June. At his Lithuanian neighbor, the ferry is pushed back to July-August.
Forgotten on the other hand, the table tests in the United Kingdom: the A-level (bac) and the GCSE (patent) will be played on a complex score calculation, which already makes families tick. In Belgium, the government is already calling for the most limited repetitions possible. But the exams vary according to the regions: in Wallonia, for example, the tests equivalent to our certificates (CE1D) and baccalaureate (CESS) are canceled: only the assessments of the year will be taken into account. Distance exams are also favored by universities. The entrance exams in medicine and dentistry, scheduled for July 3, are postponed to August 28.
Big blur for future Spanish graduates: the “EvAU” tests are maintained “physically” before July 10, but the government does not exclude to review its copy. Ditto for the other exams. In Italy, the 500,000 high school students will spend their maturita (bac) mid-June, during a single oral. In Ireland, future graduates will have to wait until the beginning of June to be fixed on the course of their leaving cert exam, still scheduled for July 29. The government hopes to get them back to school at least two weeks before. The year is closed, however, for college students: junior certificate (patent) is canceled and will be replaced by an end-of-cycle certificate. In Estonia, no patent, but an online and filmed bin, to avoid cheating.
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