Schools will open their gates on September 2nd in Slovakia with compulsory attendance and new rules in place. For the first two weeks of the fall semester, primary school pupils are recommended to wear masks during classes and during breaks, while the mask is compulsory for older students. Parents will also have to fill in a form with information about children's recent travel history and health status. The form will be available on the website of the Education Ministry in the coming days. The Education Ministry in coooperation with public health officials has also prepared a set of guidelines that can be implemented by schools to the best of their ability.
The guidelines are based on an alert system and a manual of recommendations at three stages, namely green, orange, and red. The green phase represents a situation where the school has no student or employee with confirmed or suspected coronavirus. The orange phase comes when the school has a student or employee suspected of having contracted the disease. The red phase entails a list of measures to be applied if two or more students, or a non-pedagogical worker or teacher, have coronavirus.
The Education Ministry recommends that universities start their semester on September 28th, so that they can manage, for example, the arrival of foreign students. Slovakia's largest university, Comenius University in Bratislava, has already announced that it will not postpone the beginning of the academic year. The ministry in cooperation with public health authorities has prepared guidelines for student dormitories as well.
