Should Schools Stays Closed Until All Teachers Get Vaccinated? What Experts Think

Turkey is planning to reopen schools with a hybrid education plan, where students are going to come to school 2 days a week. As the country's education minister Ziya Selçuk stated, this mitigation begins on March 1. In addition, according to the newest regulations of Ziya Selçuk, high school students are going to take the exams they weren’t able to take in the first semester in the first two weeks of March. There are specific guidelines Turkish Coronavirus Scientific Advisory Board has released, which include various mitigation strategies for safely returning to in-person schooling:

• correct wearing of masks

• physical distancing

• handwashing and sanitizing

• cleaning facilities

• quarantining, and isolation

What the guidelines don’t mention, however, is the mandatory vaccination of teachers before reopening schools.

Vaccinating The Teachers Is Still In The Planning Step

Ziya Selçuk has stated that vaccinating teachers is their top priority after vaccinating doctors. In order to speed up the vaccinating process, the teachers who are planning to teach during the in-person classes are mainly going to be vaccinated. The ministry of education stated that most teachers are going to be vaccinated until the end of February. There isn’t any progress or new information on this topic yet, though the procedure might be implemented any time in February.

What Do The Experts Say?

Turkish Coronavirus Scientific Advisory Board Member Prof. Tezer has stated that there are determined variants of the coronavirus in Turkey. However, it is still unknown how the virus goes through mutation or what kind of effect it will have on Turkish society. Experts from the Scientific Advisory Board explain their worries about if schools have teachers of any age, especially those 60 and over who have comorbidities, such as obesity, heart disease, diabetes, this situation might have severe consequences. They have to take a long, hard look to make sure that this is going to be safe. With new variants of the virus coming in, it makes experts even more nervous about opening schools.

Another topic of contradiction about the latest quarantine regulations is exams for high schoolers. Ziya Selçuk has previously announced that high schoolers will take their exams for the first term at the beginning of March. Since then, scientists have stated their concerns about all students staying in a closed area all at the same time and for a long while. Students are concerned about their health as well, trying to get the attention of the ministers and convince them to postpone the exams from social media. The minister hasn’t announced any new regulations on high school exams yet, but .