The issue of whether schools would be reopening, what this may look like, and how it will all work, has been on the minds of school management, educators, parents, teachers, and transport companies throughout the summer.
Schools were forced shut in March once the pandemic hit Malta, with students and teachers having to make do with online learning for the remainder of the school year.
Superintendent of Public Health, Charmaine Gauci, and Permanent Secretary at the Education Ministry, Frank Fabri, addressed a highly anticipated press conference on Wednesday morning to confirm schools will reopen come 28th September, together with a series of guidelines and protocols to follow.
Broadly speaking, students will have to maintain a ‘class bubble’ throughout their day, where they will be learning and enjoying recreation time with the same group of people. Students under the age of 11 will have to wear masks in common areas but not when in class.
Children aged three and under will not have to wear masks while those aged 11 and over will have to wear their masks throughout the day. The health authorities are recommending that desks inside the classroom are 1.5m apart, which in some instances may require smaller classrooms.
Asked about whether he foresees issues with enforcing mask usage, Nollaig Mac an Bhaird, Headmaster at St Edward’s College, stressed it is important not to “lose sight of the fact that the guiding light is, for all of us in the country, health and safety”.
St Edward’s College is the oldest private school on the island, having officially opened its doors in October 1929, after securing the site of the Cottonera Hospital. Today, it cares for Nursery, Junior, Middle, Senior and Sixth Form pupils, with a student population of just under 700.
Appointed to the role of Headmaster in July 2015, Mr Mac an Bhaird has worked in the education sector throughout his working-life. Commenting further on enforcing mask usage, a challenge even among adults, he said “these are the recommendations which all will follow. There might be cases where the child has a good medical reason not to wear a mask. These will be handled on an individual basis,” he added.
Asked for his opinion on the requirement for secondary school students having to wear masks at all times, Mr Mac an Bhaird stated that if this is what the Health Authorities feel is required to reduce transmission, than that is what needs to be done.
“There is no point in second guessing a group of very qualified and professional experts,” he stressed.
With just a month to go, schools around the island have been scrambling to form multiple scenarios of what re-opening would look like, in order to be as best prepared as possible for the upcoming scholastic year.
With social distancing and reduced capacity requirements, schools must house the same number of students spread over a larger space.
Asked about the logistical difficulties, Mr Mac an Bhaird said that:
“Fortunately, we had published our protocols and researched the challenges that this space issue poses. At St Edward’s we are very fortunate in having ample space. We had already measured the size of each classroom, the number of students who will fit into the classroom with 2m, 1.5m and 1m and made contingency plans for these three situations. I can understand that this will be an issue for many of my colleagues with more tight space restrictions.”
Social bubbles are also being encouraged on school transport, with students urged to avoid boarding different buses throughout the week to different localities. For some who reside in multiple households, this is not always possible.
Asked about the logistical challenges for such scenarios, Mr Mac an Bhaird stressed that there is a responsibility on “all of us citizens of Malta to adhere to the advice from Government”.
“There will be social gatherings, parties, birthdays, anniversaries, boys going to ‘sleepovers’, different sports clubs in the afternoon and so forth. At St Edward’s we use the old saying, ‘We will control the things we can, events we cannot control, we cannot control’.
“This is why, apart from the Health and Safety guiding light, we use SCUP as a request to our parents. Safety, Cooperation, Understanding and Patience. We all need to work together!”
Onto whether any of the guidelines came as a surprise to him, and whether discussions took place with stakeholders such as himself, Mr Mac an Bhaird said Education Minister Owen Bonnici and Dr Fabri conducted several meetings.
“They need to be applauded for producing the guidelines, would we have preferred to have them a month ago, yes. But we have them now and they are very much in line with what we produced ourselves.”
