Schools should reopen immediately after the Christmas holidays. They may also not be closed again afterwards as a measure to prevent the spread of corona. That is the appeal made by Unicef Netherlands, together with 59 organisations: “If we have learned one hard lesson by now, it is that closing schools harms the well-being of children and young people.”
Other signatories to the call include the Dutch GGZ, Defense for Children, the Emma Children’s Hospital in Amsterdam, the Dutch Psychiatric Association, Save the Children and V&VN Maatschappij en Gezondheid.
According to the organizations, the interest of the child plays too small a role in the considerations about corona policy. Children are being used “as a crowbar,” UNICEF Netherlands director Suzanne Laszlo said in a statement: “This pandemic must be solved by adults in the first place.”
The sixty organizations state: “Minors are made responsible for the health of adults, but the interests of children themselves are forgotten.” They say it is not clear to what extent schools contribute “to the increase in serious illness and pressure on care”.
The Outbreak Management Team will meet on Monday to formulate an advice to the cabinet. The cabinet will then decide on the same day whether schools will reopen after the Christmas holidays. It is still unclear which way the decision will go.
The outgoing cabinet decided to physically close primary schools, secondary schools and higher education a week before the Christmas holidays, as a precaution due to the emerging omikron variant.
By building in a buffer between the last day of classes and the holidays, the cabinet hoped that fewer elderly people would become infected by their grandchildren during the holidays.
It was said that the intention was to reopen the schools after the Christmas holidays on January 10. Whether that will happen is not yet clear. The cabinet will make a decision on this on 3 January, report by NOS.
Source link – https://nos.nl/artikel/2411306-unicef-en-59-andere-organisaties-open-scholen-en-sluit-ze-niet-weer
