School’s out until autumn for children in Spain’s holiday islands Mallorca and Ibiza

SCHOOLCHILDREN in the Balearic Islands will not be going back to the classroom for the remainder of the academic year, regional Education Minister Mari March has announced.
March said the idea is that online teaching will continue, with tutorials for some courses, and that school classes will restart for the 2020-21 course.
The regional minister made it clear the proposal, which will be discussed with the education community, will affect all schools on the archipelago, whether public or private, stressing the priority is health safety guarantees.
Commenting on the tutorials he said they will be individual or group for pupils in certain years to deal with any problems, starting when the islands move into Phase two of the lockdown de-escalation. They will be by prior appointment and with a maximum of five pupils.
On education for children up to the age of six, the regional minister said the Balearic administration would not be opening its schools for health reasons, but there had been requests from private nurseries to reopen their doors.
March said the decision would be down to the island administrations and municipal councils, and that authorisations would have to be with extraordinary health safety measures in place and with limits on the number of children.
The regional minister reported that thorough cleaning of all the Balearics’ schools is underway for when classrooms do open, and the plan is to provide individual protection materials to all pupils and teachers.