Emergency Department head says no official discussion on pushing back new school year

Head of the Emergency Department Raed Arafat said on Friday that there has been no official discussion on pushing back the start of the school year.

"There has been no official discussion on a potential postponement of in-person school attendance. There are certain points of view and they will be analyzed for sure, and I believe that enhanced communication with the parents is needed. I know that there has been a press conference of the Health and Education Ministries, these things need to be repeated, explained and overly explained until everyone gets it right," Arafat told broadcaster Antena 3, when asked if scenarios are being considered to postpone the start of the school year to October 1.

He added that there has been no discussion about postponing the start of the school year until after the local elections.

"Such discussions take place with several of us attending, some of them are held within the Technical-Scientific Group of the National Committee for Emergency Situations, which I personally coordinate. It includes many experts, epidemiologists, infectious disease experts, representatives of the National Public Health Institute, the Health Ministry, other ministries. So far, there has been no official discussion in this regard, we'll see if there will be any or if such proposals will be examined," Arafat said.

Prime Minister Ludovic Orban said on Friday that the authorities are mulling the possibility of the school year with in-class attendance starting on October 1, and have classes online until then, but that no decision has been made yet in this regard.

"Of course, there have been discussions on this subject, there are opinions by experts, mainly doctors, epidemiologists, infectious disease experts, who say that we should consider the high percentage of teachers and children who return from vacation (at the epidemiological investigation, many of those infected said that they had been on holiday or on a weekend trip). There have been talks, but no decision has been made yet," Orban said when asked if the authorities are considering the possibility of having in-person classes begin from October 1 and of online classes being held between September 14 and October 1.

As to wether the upcoming local elections are an impediment to the reopening of schools, the PM said that a solution to this issue could be offering a day off before elections and a day off after elections, to allow schools where polling stations are organized to get prepared.