Hungarian teachers report fear and anxiety under the pressure of the epidemic

Chaos, fear, uncertainty, and anxiety rule Hungarian schools all across the country as many Hungarian teachers have reported that the current epidemic situation, the quarantine system, and the lack of testing make them nervous every day they go in to work.

• Opposition: ‘Ill-advised’ decisions could lead to school closures

24 reported that one teacher from a Hungarian school was reported to have got the coronavirus. After the positive test, four other teachers were tested, but they were not quarantined. One of them even had to go to work despite experiencing symptoms. After two other teachers’ tests were positive, no contact search and no quarantine for children or students were ordered by the health authorities. 

It was reported several times that one infection of a teacher is no risk, and no contact search is needed. Another school said that one of their teachers got the virus but, again, no contact search was ordered, and no other teachers were tested, despite being in the same room with the infected person during the breaks.

Many schools reported that the government does not provide them with the necessary information related to the epidemic in Hungary. At one school, one student got the virus, but neither the teachers nor the classes were ordered to quarantine. Authorities no longer react to school reports; on the other hand, practitioners cannot handle examining children and sending them for testing. Moreover, testing children and teachers takes more than fourteen days, and waiting for the results is long, tiring, and filled with anxiety. 

One teacher said that after not getting any answer from the local health services about when the coronavirus test result would arrive, the doctors said that working was allowed because it is only a simple respiratory problem.

One 64-year-old teacher stated that the older generation of teachers does not feel safe in the institutions as classrooms, corridors, yards, and dining halls are flooded with children. Not to mention the fact that among the 50 to 65-year-old teachers, almost every second has some kind of chronic disease. Some of them accepted it that getting the virus will be inevitable at some point, but they also expressed their dissatisfaction with the health services and governmental orders. In some schools where children from poor families study, it has been reported that their masks are dirty and overused, but the institution cannot provide new and clean ones.

One teacher said: “We are waiting to get the virus as if we are playing Russian roulette. We, teachers, have been sacrificed to keep the Hungarian education going.”

Featured image: MTI/Czeglédi Zsolt

Read alsoHungarian teachers report fear and anxiety under the pressure of the epidemic

Source: www.24.hu