Romania's Govt. drafts flexible regulations for starting school

In a joint press conference on September 1, Romania's ministers of education and health, Monica Anisie and Nelu Tataru, announced the final form of the regulations to be applied when school opens on September 14.

Compared to the initial draft put up for public debate, the Government gave up on the mandatory statement that the parents were supposed to fill regarding the symptoms and past contacts of their kids. This was replaced with the pupils' screening at their entry in the school, but it is unclear whether this will be done daily.

Other standard regulations include mandatory wearing masks in schools (except for pupils in the introductory class or kindergartens - meaning aged five or younger) and distancing.

Pupils with parents that feature comorbidities, making them vulnerable to coronavirus infections, will be allowed to attend school online, according to health minister Nelu Tataru, News.ro reported. However, this provision opens the door for technical complications.

Another rule provides that all the pupils in a class will switch to online learning when one of their colleagues is spotted as infected, according to Hotnews.ro. The whole school will suspend classes and switch to online learning when three of its pupils are spotted as infected.

The two officials also confirmed the three general scenarios for school functioning (green, yellow, and red) depending on each city's sanitary situation. The three modes refer to offline (green), partly online (yellow), and online school (red). The local authorities and school management have the power to decide which of these scenarios they pursue based on the number of infections in each city or region.

(Photo source: Aldo Starace/Dreamstime.com)