According to the Syndicate for Education and Science (SEW) of the Independent Luxembourg Trade Union Confederation (OGBL), they are likely to be the same that were already in place at the end of the previous school year: Obligation to wear masks for everyone over the age of six within a school building, a “stage model” featuring large-scale tracing, rapid tests, and ventilation.
In this context, the SEW demands that the Ministry of Education actually work alongside actors from the sector to “finally create a long-term Covid-19 strategy” for the country’s primary schools and those pupils who are still unable to get vaccinated.
However, the SEW stated that it expects that the Ministry will once again communicate the regulations in place “at the last minute”.
The Syndicat warns that students and teachers will once again have to wrap up warm when they have to sit in cold classrooms with open windows. In 2020, the Ministry rejected the idea of installing air filtration systems because it was deemed too expensive and as giving a “false sense of security” – a decision which the SEW states it does not understand.
The trade union also demands that research be made into the long-term psychological effects of compulsory mask wearing and social distancing rules on children. The SEW also stresses that the pressure caused by quarantines and isolation measures must not be swept under the carpet.
