OELMEK calls for the withdrawal of the decision to implement the "test to stay" measure.
According to a statement, the organization's board has reviewed the data and after evaluation announces the following.
Having been informed of the latest decision of the Council of Ministers on the implementation of the "test to stay" measure, the OELMEK Board of Directors reports the following:
- We reiterate, once again, that it is the firm wish of the OELMEK that schools remain open and operate with the physical presence of students and teachers, above all with Safety and Health, without the slightest discount on the issue of Health for students, teachers, school staff and, by extension, Public Health.
- In this context we supported, throughout the pandemic, the health protection measures deemed necessary for the safe, under the circumstances, operation of schools. We note that the schools were kept open for most of the difficult two years that we experienced, primarily due to the over-effort made by the school principals and teaching staff, despite the inadequate measures taken by the Ministry of Health and the State during the same period (e.g. spacing, single desks, ventilation, substitutions).
- Unfortunately, at a time when no schools and no secondary education departments are closed or at risk of being closed, the Council of Ministers has decided to adopt the "test to stay" measure, which not only does nothing at all to achieve the objective of keeping schools open, but instead causes risks, anxiety and unnecessary disruption, while being rife with contradictions.
- At the meeting held with the Ministers of Health and Education, as well as with the President of the Scientific Advisory Committee (17/01/2022), we clearly expressed the Organization's concerns with the implementation of the measure, which were not diminished by the information we received. Among other things, we did not convincingly answer why the management of students/close contacts in schools differs from the rest of society, nor the huge contradiction of releasing the same close contacts in the morning in schools and in the afternoon putting them under compulsory self-restraint once they leave school.
- We consider beyond all reason the disparity in the policy of implementing health protocols, i.e. one health protocol for pupils/close contacts inside schools and another health protocol outside schools, giving the impression of discrimination and the experimental application of a measure to thousands of pupils/teachers/school staff.
- With the implementation of this decision it is logical that the risk of an increase in the number of cases in schools will increase, due to the hypermutability of this particular mutation, as the epidemiologists themselves state, thus increasing the risk of students and teaching staff becoming ill, especially at a time when there is a spike in cases. As a result, the possibility of additional teacher absences is also increasing, a possibility that will further hamper the operation of schools, taking into account the shortages and gaps already observed at this time in the number of teaching staff who have not been satisfactorily replaced.
- Therefore, OELMEK calls on the Council of Ministers and the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) to withdraw the decision to implement the "test to stay". Our organization's position is to continue the existing health protocol, which applies to all our fellow citizens and states that close contacts are placed under mandatory self-limitation, under which schools are kept open, even if there are difficulties.
[*]Taking into account the above position of the Organization, the KDS authorizes the Secretariat of OELMEK to be in constant consultation and contact with the other Educational Organizations, in order to jointly decide the next steps for the "test to stay" and the health protection measures applied in schools, with the main objective of not endangering the health of students, teachers, school staff and, by extension, Public Health.
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