Donetsk, Aug 20 - DAN. Donetsk People’s Republic schools will have standard school while taking measures against the coronavirus infection, DPR Education and Science Minister Mikhail Kushakov said at DPR leader Denis Pushilin’s conference with senior officials and town and district administration heads on Thursday.
“Classes at DPR schools will run as usual amid extra sanitary, epidemiological and preventive measures,” Kushakov said.
The Education and Science Ministry jointly with the Healthcare Ministry worked out guidelines for the teaching process accounting for the persisting risk of COVID-19 spread. The document orders full-scale cleaning of classrooms using sanitizers before the schoolday, fever screening at the entrance to education institutions for teachers and pupils and visual check of pupils for signs of acute respiratory infection. Massing of people at school entrances is banned; all the available entrances have to be used. A pupil who returns to classes after temporary absence has to show a doctor’s certificate clearing them for studies.
“School staff have to wear face masks during arrival of children, their enrolment or communication with children’s parents. In exceptional cases, masks have be worm upon request of the organisation’s director, medical staff or person in charge,” the minister said. “Wearing masks in class is not obligatory for schoolchildren and teachers.”
The document prohibits overcrowding of classes and cutting the sanitary and hygiene standard for free space below 2.4 square meters per pupil. Mass events involving more than 25 people are prohibited. Stricter requirements were introduced for sanitizing and mask wearing at school food units.
Earlier, Pushilin said that the Republic could cancel mandatory online learning on September 1. The DPR education institutions switched to online classes on March 19, 2020 as part of COVID-19 lockdown measures.*jk