Spain: Families uncertain as schools are due to reopen

Spain has been preparing to reopen schools on Friday with a host of coronavirus precautions in place, amid surging new infections and increasing anxiety among parents and teachers' unions.

Mari Carmen Morillas, spokesperson for the Spanish Confederation of Mothers and Fathers' Associations, said "as families, we feel very uncertain, very restless."

Masks will be mandatory for all students aged six or older, the Spanish government announced last Thursday.

The measure will be adopted by all of the country's 17 regions, which manage education autonomously, and is part of a series of standardized guidelines agreed in a meeting with central authorities.

Until now, masks were only required for students above the age of 12 by some of the regions.

Students will also have their body temperature checked on a daily basis, and will need to sanitize their hands at least five times per day. Classrooms will be frequently ventilated, the government said.

"Bubbles" in which students only socialize with a limited amount of peers will be key to identifying contacts, allowing for very localized quarantines rather than having to close down entire schools.

11,000 additional teachers are being hired and makeshift classrooms are being built in schoolyards.

Yet despite all this, principal of the IES Sevilla la Nueva secondary school said he hoped families didn't assume schools would be a risk-free environment.

"There will be a risk of contagion and they will have to take this into account," said Raul Frutos.

Authorities are facing the added pressure of wanting to reactivate the economy in a country with relatively high child poverty rates.

Spain has become western Europe’s hardest-hit country in terms of cases, and is facing a wave of fresh outbreaks.

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