Charlie Smith
THE Junta de Andalucia has said it plans to reopen the region’s schools on May 18 for ‘face-to-face’ teaching.
The Ministry of Education and Sports plans to have children back in classrooms a week on Monday.
Admin workers and management staff are understood to be allowed to go back to work a week earlier from May 11 (Monday).
Government sources, speaking to Malaga Hoy and Europa Press, confirmed that a plan to open schools is in place.
It comes after unions panned Junta President Juanma Moreno’s proposal to open schools in May.
Spain’s educational centres closed their doors mid-March in a bid to curb the spread of coronavirus.
Schools are understood to be ‘holding meetings’ with the Ministry over ‘the coming days’.
They will be advised by health chiefs ‘on the protocols to follow and measures to put in place to ensure centers are opened with all the guarantees’.
This latest move on education in Andalucia is in contrast to the Government’s four-phase plan, revealed by the Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez at the end of April.
Under the national strategy for exiting lockdown schools are not due to return ‘until September’, although kids under six whose parents are key workers can return on May 25, as per Phase 2 of the plan.
At the moment, mums and dads across Andalucia are also deciding on which schools to enrol their children at for September.
School visits to prospective students and their parents were halted in March when the state of alarm came into force.
Since then a virtual application process for school places has remained open, with physical visits to schools also set to resume soon, for those who are not able to access the service.
For the 2020/2021 school year the Ministry of Education and Sports has offered 1,445,148 places at public and state-assisted schools.
