The government’s COVID-19 guidelines for the upcoming scholastic year make no mention of a contingency plan for moving classes online again in the event of a spike in infections.
Published recently, the health department’s document outlines a series of protocols that educators, parents and students must follow during the scholastic year, which kicks off next week.
They include measures like the bubble concept, masks for all except the youngest and the distance required between desks.
But in its 36 pages, the document makes no mention of what would happen should schools be forced to close down due to the spread of the virus, as had happened in March.
Neither does the document specify what procedures need to be followed in case an entire class has to go into quarantine.
However, an entire section is dedicated to why it is important for schools to remain open.
The government, as well as the health and education authorities, have repeatedly said they do not want to have to close schools because of the pandemic.
School attendance is now mandatory again after fines for absenteeism were waived last year and parents were given the option of whether to send their children to school or not.
The document argues that “now, the overwhelming priority is to enable the physical presence of children in school whilst protecting the health of children and the school community.
“Experience and monitoring of viral spread in schools has shown this mirrors the epidemiology in the community and that, with adequate mitigation measures at a community level together with timely public health intervention through early identification of cases and quarantine of close contacts, outbreaks in schools can be contained."
Still, the document does admit to the possibility of closures.
“The temporary closure of schools should be considered a measure of last resort in an aim to curb uncontrolled viral spread because otherwise the losses incurred through schools’ closure are too great,” it said.
“This policy position is in line with that of WHO, OECD and UNICEF.”
Questions sent to the health and education ministries on what the contingency plan is have remained unanswered.
Criticism from children's commissioner
In a commentary on the new education laws, the children’s commissioner recently lamented the lack of a guarantee of alternative educational arrangements in the event of full or partial school closures.
In March, when the number of infections in the community reached record highs, Times of Malta reported that some state schools, unlike independent and Church schools, were not able to shift online because they did not have the necessary infrastructure in place.
It remains unclear if this is still the case ahead of the new scholastic year.
Teachers recently complained they do not have adequate tools to work from home as their laptops are old.
The government has promised them replacements, although many have yet to be given a new laptop and have been using the same one for years.