Ministers plan meeting to discuss back-to-school strategy

Classes begin on different dates in different regions, with some of the earliest new term starts being from Friday, September 4.

Isabel Celaá (education) and Salvador Illa (health), along with minister for territorial policy Carolina Darias will design a full procedure which will take on board feedback from the regional governments in order to prevent contagion in the classroom.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says if 'community transfer' of the virus – the number of people a person testing positive infects – remains low, children should be safe at school, although one of the ideas being floated by the national government is for pupils to have a 50-50 split between online and in-person lessons.

The procedure agreed will need to be followed in all regions, and could include measures such as compulsory masks for all pupils aged six and over.

Other ideas include children taking class in 'shifts' – one group in the morning and one in the afternoon.

It is likely Spain will consider some of the measures put in place in Italy by education minister Lucia Azzolina, which are set to involve staggered starting and finishing times, separate entry and exit doors with pupils coming in and going out monitored by teachers, redesigning classrooms to keep children at least a metre apart from each other, and regular, scheduled disinfecting and cleaning of all areas and equipment, plus a 'counselling desk' to help deal with issues such as stress, fear, anxiety, isolation, and difficulty in concentrating.

In Italy, anyone – staff or pupils – with a temperature of over 37.5ºC or any other symptoms compatible with Covid-19 will be automatically sent home and not allowed back until they have been PCR-tested and show up negative.

The WHO warns that allowing school to restart as normal in areas with high numbers of contagion would be disastrous, but in Spain, many regions have few cases and others have reported numerous outbreaks; within each region, even those with a high percentage of Coronavirus positives – such as Madrid, Catalunya, Aragón, Navarra and the Basque Country – have several towns with few or no cases at all.

At present, one in three Covid-19 positives is in Madrid, and the majority nationwide continue to be asymptomatic, with a higher proportion among the 20 to 49 age bracket.

This may mean some towns are able to allow children to go back to normal classroom life – with precautions – whilst others may be recommended to continue with online tutoring at home.

So far, Isabel Celaá has said that if schools do go back, it is likely children will still be able to go out into the playground at breaktimes, but in reduced groups and at staggered times, with kids in the same families or households kept together.

The aim is to keep class groups or year groups from mixing too much with each other, so that if a child is diagnosed, contacts are reduced and any possible spread contained.

Whilst Madrid is the keenest of all to get kids back into the classroom this September – an approach by the right-wing regional government that has led to teachers threatening to go on strike and one of the country's main unions, the CCOO (Labourers' Commissions) announcing legal action – other regions are more cautious and prefer to keep them at home.

Sra Celaá believes children returning to class is the most desirable outcome, but only if stringent safety measures are in place.

The Comunidad Valenciana is considering that, on days when the weather makes it unsafe or uncomfortable for children to go outside at breaktimes, they should stay in the last classroom they used and be supervised by the teacher who taught them immediately before the bell, with windows opened where possible to ensure the building is properly ventilated.

Photograph by Beniarbeig (Alicante province) town hall