Economy 15 April 2021, 10:30am

Teachers union protests re-opening of 1st-4th grades of primary schools, nurseries

Portfolio

Citing the rampant coronavirus pandemic and the fact that many pre-school and elementary school teachers will not have built full (or any) protection against COVID-19 due to their late vaccination, the Democratic Union of Teachers (PDSz) insists that nurseries and elementary schools must not be re-opened on 19 April.

The Hungarian government announced in late March that nurseries, elementary and secondary schools would re-open on 19 April. After protests by teacher organisations and students, warning by experts and in view of the latest epidemiological data, it then decided that secondary schools would re-open three weeks later on 10 May. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced on Wednesday that only nurseries and the 1st-4th grades of elementary schools would re-open.

The PDSz rejects this “utterly incomprehensible decision”, saying that many pre-school teachers were inoculated against COVID-19 only a few days ago, and it is also generally true that teachers could not possibly build protection against the virus by next Monday. This alone would justify keeping the institutions closed.

The union also said the decision is a serious breach of the Fundamental Law (Constitution) because if parents are forced to send their child(ren) to school because they have no way of staying home with them, the children’s right to life is violated, and if they stay home with them, the children’s right to education is violated.

The government should not force Hungarian families to make choices like this.

The PDSz says the government decision Orbán announced on Wednesday affects 660,000 children (330,000 in nurseries and about as many in 1st-4th grades), their young parents, about 1.2 million adults and the siblings of the affected children.

This is a highly critical number from the aspect of infections

, it warned.

The PDSz argues that what Orbán announced prove that

the cabinet is well-aware of the fact that institutions of public education are dangerous places from an epidemiological perspective; and
the cabinet has no intention to support those that find themselves in a difficult position due to the pandemic.

The union argues that the government is fully aware that parents would need to stay home with their young ones going to nursery or the 1st-4th grades of elementary school, and it would be the government’s duty to compensate these parents. But it does not want to pay them, it chose to send these children back to these institutions.

The PDSz has also warned that the youngest ones are most at risk of getting infected and transmitting the infection, because they do not (and should not) care about social distancing.

If the same rules applied to these institutions as to stores, one classroom would be enough for one teacher or pre-school teacher and three children

, it argues.

It also stressed that mask-wearing in this age group is practically non-existent and they are not even legally obligated to wear masks, and they cannot be vaccinated (yet) either.

Another problem is that their young parents are generally not vaccinated either, not to mention their older siblings.

The PDSz accuses the government of ignoring the fact that epidemiological data are a lot worse now than they were when schools were closed, and that it also shrugged off experts’ warnings that the pandemic will plateau for an extended period due to the premature easing of curbs.

The PDSz asked the cabinet to use ‘common sense’, and to use EU funds for what they are most needed now, i.e. the support of parents that are forced to stay home with their children.

It urges the government to keep schools and nurseries closed and re-open them only when the third wave in the pandemic is over.

Portfolio also highlighted in an analysis that the pandemic situation is indeed worse now than at the time when the cabinet decided to close schools in early March.

We also believe that the re-opening of schools will extend the duration of the pandemic and claim more lives. The number of new coronavirus infections could grow by tens of thousands among young people with the re-opening of schools, while this could be avoided in an exceedingly simple way by maintaining remote learning.

It is basically up to teachers (who can decide individually or in a unified front) and parents to thwart this arguably unwise and risky move.

As a parent you have the right not to send your kid back to school. You and your children might need to face the music, but anything is better than not having to live with the consequences because you’re dead.