We have no plans to return to distance education, Greek Education Minister Niki Kerameos said in a televised speech on December 26.
The minister rejected the school closure scenarios. According to her, the government is taking all necessary measures, while maintaining full-time education remains its priority.
She explained that all students are self-tested for coronavirus with free tests twice a week. If a case of infection is detected, all close contacts are tested daily for a week – also free of charge. In this case, half of the tests are performed independently and half are performed in laboratories.
“Frankly, we made a quite deliberate decision to invest a lot of money in this. The protocol I have described to you, one of the most intensive protocols in schools in Europe, is expensive, ”said Kerameos.
After the tightening of the security regime on December 24, many analysts began to express fears that the Greek government may introduce a teleworking regime from the new year, in connection with the spread of the Omicron coronavirus strain. In 2020 and 2021, this also meant the transition of the education system to a distance basis.
The Greek Ministry of Health has delayed its efforts as a goal to contain the rapid spread of the infection in order to gain time, have time to vaccinate more citizens and get more information about the new strain.
PS The editorial board of “Russian Athens” expresses its condolences to the Kerameos family. As it became known, on Sunday (12/26/2021) the father of Mrs. Nika Konstantinos Kerameos died.
Konstantinos Kerameus was an eminent lawyer and professor at the Faculty of Law at the National Kapodistrian University of Athens. He left behind his wife Marilena Sarri-Kerameos (lawyer), son of Dimitris Kerameos (lawyer), daughter and Minister of Education (as well as lawyer) Niki Kerameos, and five grandchildren.
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