January 7, 2022 - Minister of Science and Education Radovan Fuchs spoke at a press conference and reaffirmed the return to school classes in Croatia from this Monday. He also added that there will be mandatory masks in Croatian schools for those in fifth grade and up, among other considerations.

"You can see that, as the Government has insisted that school classes in Croatia be given in person, we have reduced online teaching to a minimum. Despite its necessity, virtual classes have their downsides, even if it was made with the highest standards for which we received a lot of recognition," he said. He added that this is not a happy solution for the education of children and young people, especially given the other negative consequences of online teaching, such as isolation, which affects the development of students.

“Based on this, and in an effort to provide proper education in this time and moment, we strive to keep it in person, which has proven to be good,” he said. “Decisions on an eventual transition to online teaching are made on a regional level in cooperation with the Ministry. At this moment, we do not have an announcement from any county to think about it, thus everything will start normally from Monday", he said.

He added that exceptions are only possible in some schools with unavailable staff due to the omicron variant. "At the moment we have information about a school in a small town, where they have a shortened staff due to the epidemiological situation", he said.

Speaking about the measures in schools, Fuchs said that the same measures from November remain in force: mandatory masks in Croatian schools for students from 5th grade onwards, regardless of the space and distance. "In earlier grades, the distance is two meters or one and a half meters, and therefore the use of masks has been abolished. Children from first to fourth grade are in this group.''

In the end, he said that the vaccination of teachers has significantly improved. "Our average is about 70.1 or 71 percent. Again, in scientific institutes, it is almost 90 percent of the higher education system, 84-85 percent in secondary schools and 70.3 or 70 percent in primary schools'', he concluded.

Source: Telegram.hr

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January 4, 2022 - Classes will start on January 10, and the Ministry has so far not received a notification from any county about the transition to the C model, or online classes, after the holidays.

The Ministry of Science and Education does not intend to change the decision at the beginning and end of the school year, so classes will start on January 10 after the winter holidays in all schools, and so far no county has announced the transition to online classes, reports Večernji List.

"The ministry does not intend to change the decision on the beginning and end of the school year, the number of working days and the duration of vacations of primary and secondary school students for the school year 2021/2022," the Ministry of Science and Education said on Tuesday.

Croatia has registered 5,845 new coronavirus cases and 46 COVID-related deaths in the last 24 hours, the national coronavirus response team reported on Tuesday.

The number of active cases in the country currently stands at 28,889. Among them are 1,817 infected persons receiving hospital treatment, including 233 who are on ventilators, and 16,715 persons who are self-isolating.

To date, 4,745,870 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered, with 55.71 percent of the total population, or 66.37 percent of the adult population, having been vaccinated. A total of 2,260,882 people have received at least one dose and 2,146,134 of them have been fully vaccinated, which is 63.16 percent of the adult population.

Despite the current epidemiological situation, the Ministry of Science and Education does not contemplate a return to virtual classes, although the development of face-to-face classes will be closely monitored in the coming weeks to avoid more cases.

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