After a six-month shutdown, the longest in Europe, Italy reopened most of its schools on Monday, testing the organisational skills of the government, the nerves of teachers and the self-control of excited students.
ITALY HAS THE LARGEST DEATH TOLL IN EUROPE
Schools in 13 of the country’s 20 regions cautiously resumed face-to-face lessons, calling back 5.6 million students to their desks. The remaining seven regions have decided to delay for another week.
“There is a huge sense of excitement both on the part of us teachers and the children. We are very happy to see each other again, but it is also a struggle not to get too close,” said Patrizia Zucchetta, a primary school teacher in Rome.
Battling to halt the spread of coronavirus, the government shut the nation’s schools in early March. Efforts to make classrooms safe again and limit the possibility of fresh contagion have been mired in controversy.
“At the beginning there are going to be problems,” Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte acknowledged on Sunday.
Many of the new 2.4 million single desks needed to guarantee social distancing, have failed to arrive in time, unions say, while thousands of teaching positions remain vacant and older staffers have expressed concerns about the risks they face.
In Italy, about 35,500 people have died of coronavirus, the largest death toll in the European Union, and the number of new cases has picked up recently raising fears of a second wave.
