Returning to School Around the World: What Does it Look Like?

With countries understanding how to handle the pandemic and the distribution of vaccines being easier, the next item to check off the list is how to get students back into school. Some countries - like China and South Korea - have already managed to open their schools country-wide, and are successful for the most part. The United States and the UK are examples of countries that are looking to reopen, or their states are in different phases of doing it. Brazil is just an example of one of the countries around the world that have opened up just recently. Now we’ll talk about how countries have either opened their schools or what their plan is.

China - the origin of the coronavirus - had opened up some of their schools back in March of last year after giving their students a whole month off. Since then, it had been a turbulent affair since cases would spike here and there resulting in the closure of schools. The Chinese education system has enforced many policies regarding the reopening of schools, and not all of them have been received well by the teachers and students but they are unable to fight back because the Chinese government is able to censor posts they do not like. Therefore in China, schools are open even with the occasional outbreak because the country itself knows how to take care of it.

South Korea and China are similar in the aspect of opening schools. South Korea managed to open some of their schools back in May of 2020 since they had a drop in cases, but they eventually had to deal with multiple outbreaks, resulting in them closing schools once again. It has been an on and off process for them, and during December of last year, they had to close schools once again since there had been a rise in cases (mainly in Seoul). They have slowly started to let high schoolers have in-person classes so that they are on track for college, as well as the younger students start to enter school with strict social distancing guidelines as well as proper hygiene.

In the United States, each state has its own guidelines on how schools should be opened but they each follow CDC guidelines once in the classroom - proper ventilation, masks must be worn, six feet distance - in order to ensure the best possible learning experience during this pandemic. In a more general perspective, some governors of the states have issued orders to make schools be open to allow students the option of attending for in-person learning. Texas is an example of enforcing this order because the governor didn’t want to lose state funding for schools since fewer students were enrolling to attend school. Most of the states don’t have an order in place to open schools, they just want the districts to have a plan for distance learning and a plan for in-person learning when their health department deems it is safe to return to school.

In the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Boris Johnson wants schools to be open so as of Monday, March 8th, all England schools are in session in person. You must show up, but if you have a valid reason then you are excused. For secondary schools, the schools wish to test them before they are allowed on campus and as a result, they will have a staggered schedule to allow for that. The National Education Union of the UK believes that the prime minister should have put more safety regulations in place in the days leading up to students being put back in school to ensure the safety of the children. Unfortunately, teachers are upset because the prime minister wants students to be safe while returning to school but hasn’t reassured the parents that it is safe to test them, and as a result parents are hesitant to test their kids for the virus before they set foot on campus.

In Brazil, COVID-19 cases are skyrocketing, but the government wants schools open (especially in the city of Sao Paulo even though it has the highest case total of the country). They have been in school for about a month, but teachers and students are protesting because they don’t think that it is safe. According to the World Socialist Website, there had been simulations that had been done by Brazilian medical experts and universities that showed that if students and teachers went back to school based on the guidelines set by the government, then 46% of the teachers and students combined would be infected with the coronavirus. That is just horrible, but the government isn’t listening to science and the people can’t do anything but go along with what is said.

It is certainly a process because going back to school after a year of being home (or alternating between home and school) is extremely hard, and requires a lot of planning. It’s clear that there is no easy solution to have a safe return to school, but it is definitely achievable one day. Even with vaccines, it will be some time before life goes to normal and you have a school day like you did before the pandemic hit. All we can do now is stay vigilant and safe because this pandemic is not over.

Until next time, Keerthana T

Sources:

1. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/12/world/asia/china-schools-reopening.html

2. https://www.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-southkorea/south-korea-orders-schools-to-shut-as-covid-19-cases-spike-idUSKBN28O09O

3. http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20210128000726

4. https://www.pacificprime.com/blog/how-countries-around-the-world-are-getting-children-back-to-school.html

5. https://www.edweek.org/leadership/map-where-are-schools-closed/2020/07

6. https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/02/02/saop-f02.html

7. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-56307156

8. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/safely-distributing-meals.html