Will teachers and students really refuse to go back to school because of the COVID?

The graduating classes and teachers are afraid to return to school due to the lack of vaccinations; many fear an additional quarantine in May when the school-leaving exams will be organised.

There is no point in going back to high schools for two weeks before graduation – according to Eduline, based on the emails they received from students. In addition to it being unnecessary, many fear that if they get infected at school at the end of April, they will fall ill or be quarantined during the written phase of the school-leaving exams.

The majority of Eduline readers who participated in the survey think that

in-person education is unsafe and unnecessary before

graduation and the opening should be rescheduled to mid-May at best.

Most students consider it pointless, but many have also called the opening of schools explicitly dangerous. They fear that if they become infected between April 19 and early May, they will get sick or be quarantined by graduation.

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Not only students but teachers also fear the opening. The tension escalated to such extents that some teachers said they consider civil disobedience. A high school teacher stated that they will remain in digital education if they do not gain protection until schools open. They argue that in this case, they would not be refusing to work, only to work in dangerous conditions and potentially infect their graduate students weeks before graduation.

A teacher at a high school in Budapest posted her thoughts on Facebook:

“If by April 19th or any time the school reopens, I will not develop immunity from the vaccine(s) for which I have not yet received a confirmation message, I will not return to in-person education. That does not mean ’no school’, even if the anti-pedagogical part of this country will be happy to interpret it that way”

— they wrote. In their view, they do not refuse work but continue to take on the extra task that distance learning requires

Vaccination of teachers begins this week. Those who have registered for the vaccine by March 24 are scheduled to be vaccinated at vaccination sites between April 1 and 3. They want to vaccinate all registered school workers by April 10, meaning there will be teachers who only receive the vaccine 8-9 days before the planned opening.

However, based on experts, that is not enough time for protection to develop.

Members of the PDSZ (Democratic Union of Teachers) are concerned because they question whether the government will be able to vaccinate all those involved in education at all in the short time available, and if they do so, protection from vaccination will still not develop in time.

In the case of the vaccines currently used in Hungary, two doses are required for complete protection. A certain degree of protection develops after the first dose, but that also requires an average of 15-20 days. For complete immunity, one or two weeks must pass after the second dose, which will not happen before May (and in the case of the AstraZeneca / Vaxzevria vaccine, the second dose follows the first by three months).

On May 3, however, the graduation exams will surely begin. According to the Ministry of Human Resources, the exams will be organised just like before the epidemic. That means that while oral exams were cancelled last year, they will happen this year.

“The past year has been a serious mental burden for the students, and there may be significant knowledge gaps in this year’s graduation grade”

-according to the Union of Headmasters of Leading High Schools.

“We see that they […] cannot be expected to achieve the results shown by previously graduated students. We are asking the decision-makers to consider the compensation in a fair way for the disadvantages of this year’s participants of the graduation exams, whether the epidemic situation allows for the partial or full organisation of examinations at all. We are happy to offer our help and work to develop a detailed plan for the solution.”

-read in their statement.

Source: szeretlekmagyarorszag.hu; eduline.hu