New measures did not protect Russian schools from possible quarantine and distance learning

Daria Voznesenskaya

So, now, at the entrance to school, children measure their temperature in a non-contact way, if it is increased, the child is isolated and an ambulance is called. Each class has a separate room, where students have to study physics, chemistry, and computer science, with the exception of physical education and work. At the same time, students from different classes should not intersect at breaks. In addition, in educational institutions, it is necessary to carry out processing of premises and ventilation. Air recirculators and hand sanitizers should also be installed there. At the same time, pupils and teachers were allowed not to wear masks and gloves, and children continue to go to the common toilet, one dining room and changing room, they also may not observe the social distance of one and a half meters.

The measures introduced are necessary so that children can study in person, since the distance learning system introduced "on the knee" was severely criticized in all regions of the country this spring. However, some regions are already complaining that the requirements are not being met. For example, in Kazan, the distance at the entrance to schools was not observed, writes Inkazan. And in the Volgograd region, as reported by Novosti Volgograda, not all schools are disciplined in measuring the temperature of students. At the same time, the mayor of Orsk (Orenburg region) Vasily Kozupitsa is concerned that some parents, bypassing all requirements, send children with signs of various diseases to school. "An irresponsible position, which can lead to mass infection and quarantine not only of the class, but also of the school", - 56orb.ru quoted him as saying.

State Duma deputy from the Omsk region Oleg Smolin says that compliance with all the requirements of Rospotrebnadzor, according to the estimates of specialists from the Omsk Medical University, will cost each school an average of 20 million rubles per six months. “This is not feasible, so now there is a conversation about how to combine face-to-face and distance classes,” he said in a conversation with the Gorod55 publication.

According to the deputy, the following option is possible - the parallel of one class is studying remotely, the other - in person, and after two weeks they change.

In the meantime, remote control is returning to some regions of the country. Basically, individual classes stop working. So, in the Nizhny Novgorod region, 60 classes have already been quarantined for coronavirus, in the Sverdlovsk region - 40, in the Volgograd region - 16, in the Belgorod region - 11, in Karelia - 6. 323 students from Bashkiria and 147 - from Orenburg region. Two more schools in Yekaterinburg are completely closed. Quarantine also touched one of the Tyumen grammar schools. Note that in order for the school to be completely closed, 20% of students must get sick, to close the class, one infected with the coronavirus is enough.

At the same time, in such regions as Udmurtia, Tatarstan and Omsk region, no cases of COVID-19 in schools have yet been identified. However, over 20 classes in the Omsk region were quarantined for ARVI.

The employees of Rospotrebnadzor, who have not yet found massive violations, should monitor compliance with epidemiological measures in schools. In some regions, other resources are also used. For example, in Bashkiria, “covid inspectors” are attracted from among students and undergraduates of medical universities and colleges, Mkset.ru reports. And in Udmurtia, according to Udm-info, members of the parent committee go to schools to control the organization of the educational process, often without warning.

But are the risks of full-time education of children justified during a pandemic? Most regions believe so. According to the deputy of the Omsk City Council Yuri Tetyannikov, distance learning is the weakest way of teaching. Therefore, he considers it correct that the schools opened on September 1.

“What was happening in Tatarstan on remote control is incomprehensible to the mind. There were several platforms, the children could not understand anything, someone received assignments via WhatsApp, but this is far from distance learning, this is education on the knee”, - adds Yekaterina Matveyeva, administrator of the“ Extortions in schools and kindergartens ”group.

“The opening of schools was needed by everyone - children, teachers and parents. There are always risks of getting sick, because every year we have seasonal outbreaks of influenza and ARVI. We have learned to cope with this, we will learn to deal with coronavirus, ”the Sverdlovsk Regional Parents' Committee noted.

To keep children safe, some regions are taking additional measures. So, in the Belgorod region, in good weather, lessons in various subjects are held in the fresh air, writes Bel.ru. Such a resource is called "green classes". “We have a fairly large school territory: why not hold a literature lesson in the fresh air? This is especially true when studying landscape lyrics. That is, as long as the weather permits, we will use this resource”б - said Valentina Muzyka, head of the upbringing and continuing education department.

Also, schools in the Belgorod Region have the opportunity to use network forms of implementing training programs: if some institution does not have a teacher in any subject, children can study remotely with a teacher from another school.

In the Volgograd region, the educational process has also undergone changes: in some schools, the changes were increased to 20-30 minutes, and somewhere the lessons were reduced to half an hour. In addition, now in the Volgograd Lyceum No. 5 named. Gagarin is considering the possibility of connecting children to the classroom via videoconference. “The child connects via a webcam and watches what is happening in the classroom. In fact, he is present at the lesson, only on the other side of the screen, ”explained the director of the institution Larisa Tropkina.

However, some experts believe that the full-time school year could have been postponed for at least a month in order to protect children from seasonal flu by vaccination. “Those children who are already sick with ARVI will have a medical withdrawal from vaccinations, which will prolong the vaccination. And it is imperative to protect yourself from the flu this year. After all, what awaits us in winter and autumn is not yet clear”, - TagilCity.ru quotes one of the doctors of the infectious diseases hospital in Nizhny Tagil.

Deputy Chairman of the Legislative Assembly of the Nizhny Novgorod Region Vladislav Yegorov, in an interview with NewsNN, also noted that the transition to full-time education should be at the end of September, given the negative dynamics in morbidity before the start of the school year. “But another algorithm was chosen and now it is necessary to determine manually which school will work in person and which one will be transferred to a remote format”, - he noted.

The teacher from Petrozavodsk also believes that it was necessary to choose a different teaching model. “I believe that at the desks it would be necessary to conduct only basic subjects - Russian, mathematics, foreign languages. Everything else - fine art, drawing, music, social studies could be transferred to a distance in order to minimize contacts. No canteens, no trips down the corridors, etc. Tough times call for tough measures. But history, as you know, does not tolerate the subjunctive mood", - Karelinform quotes him.

At the same time, Andrey Generozov, a representative of the Tyumen Parents' Committee, generally finds anti-epidemiological measures in schools unnecessary, writes NashGorod.ru. “The current percentage of cases does not exceed the threshold of either an epidemic or a pandemic. Accordingly, such measures as distance learning, mask mode, high alert mode are all clearly redundant measures. There are political reasons behind this, ”he said.

Now Russian schools are between two fires - coronavirus and distance education: either the knowledge and the ability of children to contract the coronavirus, or gaps in education, but maintaining health. Although it should also be remembered here that even at a distance, children will not sit at home, which means that there is a risk of getting sick in this case.

In Europe, they are not in a hurry to massively switch to telecommuting. For example, in some schools in Italy, lessons are held in the courtyards, while masks are required. In Austria, students are required to wear personal protective equipment only when leaving class. In Germany, masks are required everywhere, except for classes. However, there are other problems there - children are taken to schools by buses, but there are still not enough of them according to the new standards. In addition, inclusion is at great risk - schools are reluctant to hire autistic children because teachers cannot cope with new demands. The situation in Israel is completely different - the country again goes into a three-week quarantine, all schools are closed.