COMPULSORY masks for all children aged six and over – including on school buses – and temperatures taken upon entry every morning are some of the moves agreed as part of Spain's back-to-class strategy.
The new term begins at different times in different regions, but pupils will start filtering back into the classroom from Friday, September 4.
Education minister Isabel Celaá, health minister Salvador Illa and territorial policy and public functions minister Carolina Darias met with representatives from all 17 of Spain's autonomously-governed regions, plus those of the two city-provinces of Ceuta and Melilla on the northern Moroccan coast.
They all managed to agree on 29 specific measures and five recommendations to be adopted ahead of the new academic year in September, except the Basque Country, which abstained when they were voted upon.
Children attending class in person is a priority, at least up to second year of high school (aged 12 and 13), since in the event of further outbreaks that make it advisable to stay at home, it is considered that teens aged 14 to 18 and university students would have the maturity and self-discipline to follow lessons remotely from home – also, above age 14, they do not need to have a parent at home with them during the day if this is not possible due to adult working hours.
Distances of at least 1.5 metres between children, and between kids and teachers, must be kept as far as is practical, and emphasis should be placed on ensuring children wash their hands regularly.
Rooms should be kept ventilated as much as possible and cleaned and disinfected stringently.
If three people – pupils or teachers – at any school become infected, this will be treated as an 'outbreak' and the school temporarily shut, although two or fewer will only affect specific class groups.
Shutting an entire school will be a 'last resort' to prevent uncontrolled contagion.
Where this happens, or a single class group has to close down, all pupils in that group or in the school, and all teachers who have been in contact with them, will be PCR-tested and ordered to quarantine for at least 14 days.
School lunches will still be served, although children will be expected to sit at least 1.5 metres apart.
No specific instructions have been issued for class sizes, but regional governments have taken on more teachers this year to enable them to cut group numbers, and it is recommended that no more than 15 to 20 children form part of each class.
“Children are safer in school than outside of it”
“We have to go to class,” Sra Celaá stresses.
“We have to take exams and continue with our curriculum. For those who are scared, I have to tell you that, right from the start, we're going to be working to create a safe environment.”
Various parental uprisings – demonstrations, petitions, complaints, and associations forming – on the basis of refusing to send their children back to school have been cropping up across the country.
“There's no such thing as zero risk, but schools are much safer than other environments where children might be socialising with each other.”
Except in the case of an actual case of Covid-19, schools will remain open throughout the whole of the academic year, and support for pupils with special educational needs and for 'vulnerable' families – such as those on very low incomes – will continue, 'for as long as the epidemiological situation allows it'.
Ongoing training for teachers, other service staff in schools, and pupils will be given in terms of health, safety and prevention, and each school will have a 'Covid coordinator' who will be the first port of call in the event of a 'positive'.
Teachers and other staff are urged to restrict their time on the premises to the 'bare essential' – as in, if part of their job does not require them to be there, such as marking essays and preparing lessons, they should do this at home, unless it involves having to return home and then come back an hour or two later to teach another class.
“The aim of this agreement is twofold: Give greater priority to face-to-face teaching in infants', primary and the first year of secondary; and to achieve a safe, healthy and sustainable return to school for the whole educational community,” Isabel Celaá says.
'Bubble groups'
Pupils will be organised into class groups which spend all their time together, to reduce or eliminate mixing between classes, and these self-contained groups will do their socialising and learning together.
Within these groups, physical distancing will not be required, even in the canteen, but masks must be worn from age six upwards and every child will have the same seat in their classrooms and in the lunch hall all year.
Staff are recommended to stagger breaktimes, lunchtimes and entrances and exits where they can, to minimise the likelihood of different class groups mixing with each other.
These self-contained classes are known as 'bubble groups', although it is not clear how they will be arranged and whether this could cause stress for kids separated from their friends.
Organised hand-washing, five times at day at least, airing classrooms for a minimum of 10 to 15 minutes at a time as often as possible, talks with children on health and hygiene, and ensuring order at the entrances so temperatures can be taken before they set foot inside the building will be standard.
Anyone who displays symptoms compatible with Covid-19 will automatically be required to stay at home without prior consultation – including children, cleaners, teachers, and administration staff – and everyone who has been in contact with them will be tested.
First photograph by the town hall in Beniarbeig (northern Alicante province)
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