There is agreement that some of the students - probably the 7th, 8th and 12th grades - will resume in-person classes in schools from February 4. This will be done in alternation of students, since some students were not more than 12 weeks in schools, but studied online, told journalists Deputy Minister of Education and Science Tanya Mihaylova.
She held a meeting at the Ministry of Health with representatives of the Ministry of Health, employers' and trade unions in education.
It is important that in-person callses will not start for grades from 5th to 12th, but will probably start with 12th, 7th and 8th grades as of February 4. The final decision will be made in the next week, but with the big caveat that everything will depend on the development of the epidemic situation in the country, added the Chief State Health Inspector Assoc. Prof. Angel Kunchev. In his words, these 7th, 8th and 12th grades are "priority".
The Deputy Minister of Education and Science gave an example of how the alternation of senior students for in-person learning in schools will be organized – two weeks for classroom studying for 7th, 8th and 12th grades, after which, again, two weeks they will be studying online. The idea is to be able to include the next grades and to avoid crowding, especially of senior students, Mihaylova explained.
Assoc. Prof. Kunchev specified that the idea is to give more information on how to return senio students to schools as of from February 4, at the regular briefing of the health authorities on January 28. "It will be a school attendance of an average of 38 to 40% of students who will rotate in two-week shifts so that there can be fewer people and fewer contacts at school," he explained. And he said the condition for resuming in-person classes for senior students back is one - to keep the low coronavirus incidence rate in Bulgaria.
Mihaylova also commented on the upcoming vaccination of teachers. It will not start simultaneously, but only where the first phase of vaccination has ended, and on certain days. Teachers’ vaccination is expected to have started everywhere by early February.
"It is very important that all teachers who have signed up for vaccination give their exact ID data and the lists are updated. At the moment we have processed data for 21% willing to be inoculated, but the percentage is increasing", added Deputy Minister Mihaylova.
