Students in the final years of secondary school might return to offline studies from the beginning of March with the regular COVID-19 testing, as Minister of Education Robert Plaga stated in his proposal. Prime Minister Andrej Babiš will discuss the proposal this Monday.
98,000 high school students and 30,000 school staff will return to schools and will have to participate in regular testing. Plaga offers to test every seven to 14 days with non-invasive RT-PCR tests. The government will spend from 80 to 180 million Czech crowns a week. The school will be able to process the saliva tests without the help of the medical staff. A negative COVID-19 test will be required to continue studies in school.
If the return of the final year students proves to be successful, the high school students might be able to return as well. Plaga also considers non-invasive antigen tests for primary school students. The State Institute of Public Health is currently working on the research, which will be ready in three weeks.
Currently, only kindergartens and two first grade primary schools are working. Other schools are required to provide distance learning. Plaga already added that regular testing can make schools open even during the difficult pandemic situation. Also, last Friday, Babiš already mentioned that it is important to create perfect conditions for students to return to schools and to keep the anti-epidemic measures functioning.
