85 students and 45 infected teachers in Pristina, teaching still continues in schools

In the Pristina municipality since the start of the new school year, there are 85 students who have been infected with COVID-19, while there are more than 45 teachers who have proved positive. Pristina's Education Directorate, however, estimates that the pandemic situation is manageable.

The education director in the Pristina municipality, Hope Shala, indicated that there are currently six schools that the teaching process is holding online.

We're in constant contact with the IKSC and the moment we have an infected student then the whole class is heading to online learning and this is probably the best way and the spread is slower because of the joint management we're doing with IKPK. At the moment we can say that it's going well, but we're witnessing increased cases per day, in schools, protocols are being respected. We as the DKA are on the ground every day and we see that protocols within the school are respected”, she says.

Shala claims there are over 85 cases of student infection with COVID-19 and over 45 teachers. Despite that, it claims the situation in the capital's schools is manageable and will continue to keep learning in school facilities.

“The IKSHPK made recommendations meant for school work and cases that are inside the school. Since we don't have a large number of those infected at school then the lesson should continue, given the importance of following students at school. So, I'm thinking at the moment it's manageable, in case there's a huge increase in cases in normal schools that need to be closed, but at the moment we don't have big growth, but it can be managed without being closed”, she points out.

As far as not participating in online speeches, Shala says students and educators are also lacking.

Now online learning is equivalent to learning at school, any teacher who is missing online learning is estimated to be in the school facility. The same is true for students, which means the shortages children do in online learning are estimated to do at school, because we are currently in a situation that in case of teaching infections turns online from regular learning and teaching is mandatory and shortages should be taken the same as at school”, Shala says.

The first education in the capital says that they have consistently been provided to supply students and educators who have not had technology tools to maintain online learning.

For our students during April and May we have received an action on the equipment of students who lack technology equipment, somewhere around 500 equipment has been distributed to students. But even on a daily basis when we receive requests from educational institutions, then we're in touch with donors and we supply them. For teachers, we don't have a budget to provide you with technological equipment, but each school has equipment inside the school that if they switch to online learning, they're bound to give if there's a need for”, she says.

In our country only yesterday were 514 new cases of COVID-19, which Pristina leads with the largest number of infected cases of 249.