Elementary school

Some schools in Japan resume classes after virus-prompted closures

Noticias

Asia/ Japan/ 17.03.2020/ Source: english.kyodonews.net.

Some elementary and junior high schools in Japan resumed classes on Monday, about two weeks after shutting to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.

The education ministry asked education boards across the country on Feb. 28 to close their schools as part of efforts to contain the outbreak, but the request was not mandatory and it was left to local authorities to decide how long the suspension should last.

Deeming infections of the pneumonia-causing virus have not spread within their communities, the education boards of Toyama, Shizuoka, Hamamatsu and Naha cities as well as Okinawa Prefecture have decided to end the closures at the schools they run.

School closures have significantly affected the lives of children and their parents.

«I want to enjoy the remainder of my school life until the graduation ceremony in two days’ time,» said Junon Matsushita, 12, who arrived at Aoi Elementary School in Shizuoka in the morning along with many others who were wearing masks.

The boy said he had spent the past two weeks studying and playing with his 18-year-old brother, whose high school was similarly closed.

The elementary school has decided to keep pupils’ desks apart and open windows for ventilation to prevent potential infections following the restart of classes. Teachers also checked written reports submitted on the children’s body temperatures and health conditions in recent weeks.

According to an earlier Kyodo News survey, 18 education boards had been planning to reopen schools on Monday. Thirteen of them, however, have now decided to extend their closures until the spring break, which normally ends in early April.

The 13 are the education boards of the cities of Sapporo, Saitama, Yokohama, Osaka, Sakai, Kobe, Saga and Miyazaki, and the prefectures of Kyoto, Hyogo, Kumamoto, Saga and Kagoshima.

Many other education boards in the country announced from the start that they would keep their schools shut until the spring break.

Shimane Prefecture and the city of Matsue, meanwhile, have not closed their schools at all.

Source of the notice: https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2020/03/f1d6bab1eb6b-some-schools-in-japan-resume-classes-after-virus-prompted-closures.html

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Finland: Education Minister warns of school consequences of population decline

Noticias

Europa/ Finland/ 27.01.2020/ Source: newsnowfinland.fi.

Minister of Education Li Andersson (Left) is warning that declining population in some parts of the country might mean there’s not enough children for each municipality to have its own schools in the future.

She made the comments to Iltalehti newspaper, and attributes the problem to Finland’s falling birth rate. One answer the minister suggests is to share resources. “Sharing an elementary school among several municipalities is something that I consider a possible outcome in some parts of Finland” she says.

Finland has one of the lowest birth rates in the western world, although the overall population of the country is increasing thanks to inward migration.

The number of children born in 2019 for example (45,597) is the lowest recorded annual figure since the famine years of the 19th century.

According to the latest figures from Statistics Finland 45,597 children were born during 2019 which is 1,980 fewer births than the year before.

Li Andersson says this will have an impact on education as well.

“Obviously, if these population projections come true, it will be visible on the school and education side. The first, of course, is immediately apparent in early childhood education. Therefore, we intend to bring this big issue to the forefront of education policy” she says.

Source of the notice: https://newsnowfinland.fi/domestic/education-minister-warns-of-school-consequences-of-population-decline

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