With the government’s decision from last week, the second semester in the primary and secondary schools in the country will resume Tuesday with in-person classes. However, the requests for the beginning of the second semester to resume with online teaching have become more frequent. The Independent Trade Union for Education, Science and Culture (SONK), the First Children’s Embassy in the World “Megjashi” made such requests, as did the opposition VMRO-DPMNE.

Health Minister Bekim Sali said on Friday that the decision was made after it was assessed that the epidemiological situation allows holding in-person classes. However, he stressed that the Ministry of Health will conduct screening among students at random and if the virus spreads in a particular region, municipality or city, appropriate measures will be taken.

SONK on Thursday asked the Government to reconsider the decision to start the second half of the year with in-person classes, estimating that in a situation when the number of new patients is growing, online classes should be held in the first two weeks, and then the epidemiological situation should be considered to start with in-person classes.

The President of SONK, Jakim Nedelkov, told MIA said that at a time when the percentage of newly diagnosed COVID-19 patients in the country is growing, if schools resume with in-person classes, there is a real possibility that the virus will spread much faster.

On Friday, the First Children’s Embassy in the World “Megjashi” informed that it had sent a request to the Government and the Commission for Infectious Diseases to reconsider the decision the second semester to resume with in-person classes.

According to Megjashi, the number of infected children registered by the Institute for Lung Diseases in the period from end of December 2021 to the beginning of the second half of January has doubled from the usual number during the biggest peaks in the previous waves, so given this it is necessary to consider whether in-person classes is the most appropriate way or it is better classes start at least two weeks later or online.

On Sunday, VMRO-DPMNE asked the government to reconsider the decision to start the second half of the year with in-person classes “in conditions when Omicron is ravaging across the country”.

Therefore, we suggest that the second semester classes for students from fourth to ninth grade to resume online in the next two weeks, and in-person classes to resume for students from first to third grade, with daily monitoring of the epidemiological situation in schools throughout Macedonia, said VMRO- DPMNE.