An average of 10 percent of all high school students were sniffling at home in recent weeks. They miss classes because they are not allowed to go to school due to the corona measures. School leaders fear that the backlog could become “disastrous.”
The cabinet decided on Friday that children with brats are welcome again in primary education. High school students and teachers still have to stay at home with a runny nose, cough or other cold complaints. In the first weeks of this new school year, this already led to an exorbitant absenteeism among students in many secondary schools. While absenteeism normally hovers around 5 percent, some schools are now reporting peaks of as much as 17 percent. A 10 percent absence seems to be the rule rather than the exception. This is evident from a tour of the AD along dozens of secondary schools across the country.
By way of illustration: last week almost 200 of the 1600 students were missing at the Kaj Munk College in Hoofddorp, the Van der Capellen School Community in Zwolle was missing 200 of the 1,300 students every day and at the Zwin College in Oostburg more than 200 of the total of about 770 reported students fell ill last week. And then the real cold months are yet to come.
Quarantine
According to the Scholenmeldpunt website, there have been 178 secondary schools since May that have (had) dealt with actually infected pupils or teachers. In some locations, half classes had to be quarantined as a precaution. One secondary school in Nijmegen even closed completely.
Last Friday, the Spinoza Lyceum in Amsterdam reported that thirty students were infected with corona. Five teachers also tested positive. According to rector-director Jan Paul Beekman, parents turned out to have sent their children to school, even though they already had minor complaints. “We do our best at school to enforce the measures, but you have to do it together.” The school urged the parents to keep children with complaints at home.
Many school leaders are concerned about the current school year. Students with mild cold complaints are forced to stay at home due to the corona measures. Only when they are free of complaints for 24 hours or have a negative result of a corona test, are they allowed to go back to school. Because of the long waiting times for corona tests, a student can therefore just sit at home for five days. Even if not he or she, but a family member has complaints.
Backlog
In addition, some pupils are still behind because of the lockdown in the previous school year. “If this absenteeism continues to develop in this way, among pupils and teachers, it will be fairly disastrous,” expects Wiebe Wieling, chairman of the Executive Board of the OVO Fryslân-Noord Foundation. At “his” twelve schools, hundreds of the 5,500 students were missing in recent weeks. Thirty to forty teachers are also at home every day.
Teachers struggle with all the empty school desks. To prevent further backlogs, they switch to online education as much as possible. During the lessons, for example, classmates turn on a live stream for the students at home or teachers activate an online meeting. “There are concerns about distance learning,” says Nienke Luijkx, chairman of the Laks student committee. “It is said that students who drop out can attend school at home. But we hear that this does not happen everywhere. ” Teachers say it is difficult to combine live lessons with caring for students at home.
Teacher needed
Moreover, schools notice that not all students benefit equally from online education. Pre-vocational secondary education students in particular need a teacher in front of them to keep them focused and to be able to ask questions, say the schools. Wieling from OVO Fryslan-Noord: “This spring, everything was digital, which was perhaps easier to organize than now. Now you have so many variables in your class. ”
The students themselves also wonder what all absence means for their education. Luijckx van het Laks: “It is not surprising in itself to make it as normal a school year as possible, but at the same time we have to ask ourselves what is realistic to expect from the students.”
With their protocols, the schools follow the instructions of the RIVM, which states that students should stay at home in case of a (nose) cold, “one of the complaints that often occurs with Covid-19”. However, the World Health Organization (WHO) classifies a stuffy or runny nose as “less common symptoms” for the disease. A spokesperson for the RIVM states “that we have identified the symptoms that people should be aware of.” This was done on the basis of advice from the Outbreak Management Team (OMT).
Well exam
The Ministry of Education is aware of the signals about the high level of absenteeism and states that it will “map out how the absence is going”. In any case, the ministry wants to allow the central exams to take place this year. “That is the starting point, but we keep an eye on developments,” said the spokesperson.
According to the sector organization VO Council, it should also be possible to let the exam candidates leave school with a diploma. “I’m not saying it will be easy, but I see creativity in the sector. And we have received money to make up for any backlogs. I am optimistic about that, ”said chairman Paul Rosenmöller.
Although this school year will not be “a normal” year either, everyone agrees on that. “The students do go to school, but it is not a year as you would like it to be”, concludes Henk Post, director at Dunamare Education Group.
