Bulgaria: Students up to 4th Grade will be Without Masks in Class

Students up to and including 4th grade will not wear masks during class. Masks will also not be mandatory for pre-school children in schools. However, classrooms will need to be ventilated at least twice an hour for at least one minute.

The masks for all other students, as well as for those from the primary classes in the breaks and in the common areas of the school, remain obligatory throughout the day and everywhere in the building.

The changes are recorded in the updated Guidelines for training and actions in the conditions of an emergency epidemic situation in schools published by the Ministry of Education (you can see them here). Some of the measures have been eased, and some new ones have been introduced, after the education department has consulted with medical specialists from the Ministry of Health, child psychologists and psychiatrists, the press center of the ministry notes.

Masks will not be mandatory for teachers during class with a physical distance of at least 1.5 m between them and the students' seats. This rule will also apply in the classes of physical education and indoor sports if in the particular class the room is used by only one class at a distance of at least 1.5 m between students and with regular ventilation.

At the request of parents and / or students, protective face masks can be worn throughout the school stay.

In case of illness or quarantine

In isolated cases of sick or quarantined students, teachers or other employees, the school principal issues an order to switch to e-learning for an individual student or class. In the absence of 10% of students due to symptoms of COVID-19 and / or the number of ill teachers, which makes the present learning process impossible, the principal proposes to the Minister of Education and Science to switch to rotary or comprehensive distance learning in e-learning (ORES). This is done after a decision of either the pedagogical council, or the Regional Health Inspectorate (RHI), or the regional crisis headquarters.

When preparing the proposal for rotation, the principle of distance learning should be no more than 50% of the students.

In case of rotation, the class with the most ill or contact students is the first to switch to online training. In the general case, distance learning is introduced first for high school students with the exception of 12th grade. In case of continuing deterioration of the epidemic situation, the students from 12th grade are included, as well as from the junior high school stage with the exception of 7th grade.

Students in 7th grade and elementary school (grades 1-4) go on to distance learning only as a last resort.

In the dark red scenario - with at least 500 patients per 100,000 people, all schools in the area go entirely into distance learning in an electronic environment only after an order from the Minister of Health, which requires the closure of schools. In the absence of such an order, the measures prescribed for individual schools in individual cases or in at least 10% of ill students and / or teachers apply.

/Dnevnik

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