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Schools guarantee physical classes for new students

Kaukab Tahir Shairani
July 28th, 2020


This article is more than 4 years old.

Schools will prioritise offering physical classes to new students but digital learning will continue following spring’s Coronavirus Crisis

Universities in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic have guaranteed physical attendance particularly for new students, DR reports.

“A good study environment is important. And it is hard to imagine that you can start it without physical attendance,” said Lone Vestergaard, head of studies at Aalborg University.

However, schools will continue to keep online learning facilities up-to-date following spring’s COVID-19 crisis.

Rie Snekkerup, Vice-Provost for Education at the University of Copenhagen, said that universities will follow a set of guidelines such as limiting the number of students in classrooms and reading areas.

She maintained that digital teaching will remain a key component of education.

Online learning not optimal
Johan Hedegaard Jørgensen, chairman of the Danish Students’ Union, said that digital learning may affect the quality of teaching, which is why physical attendance is available for new students.

He added that online learning was not optimal.

“The students have been frustrated during the corona crisis. There is no one who benefits from sitting at home in the dorm room,” said Jørgensen.

70,000 new students admitted
Schools are finalising their modes of teaching as a record number of nearly 70,000 students got admitted to higher education in 2020.

Past midnight on Tuesday, 69,529 out of 94,604 applicants were offered places in universities across the country.

The number is a six percent increase compared to last year.


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A survey carried out by Megafon for TV2 has found that 71 percent of parents have handed over children to daycare in spite of them being sick.

Moreover, 21 percent of those surveyed admitted to medicating their kids with paracetamol, such as Panodil, before sending them to school.

The FOLA parents’ organisation is shocked by the findings.

“I think it is absolutely crazy. It simply cannot be that a child goes to school sick and plays with lots of other children. Then we are faced with the fact that they will infect the whole institution,” said FOLA chair Signe Nielsen.

Pill pushers
At the Børnehuset daycare institution in Silkeborg a meeting was called where parents were implored not to bring their sick children to school.

At Børnehuset there are fears that parents prefer to pack their kids off with a pill without informing teachers.

“We occasionally have children who that they have had a pill for breakfast,” said headteacher Susanne Bødker. “You might think that it is a Panodil more than a vitamin pill, if it is a child who has just been sick, for example.”

Parents sick and tired
Parents, when confronted, often cite pressure at work as a reason for not being able to stay at home with their children.

Many declare that they simply cannot take another day off, as they are afraid of being fired.

Allan Randrup Thomsen, a professor of virology at KU, has heavily criticised the parents’ actions, describing the current situation as a “vicious circle”.

“It promotes the spread of viruses, and it adds momentum to a cycle where parents are pressured by high levels of sick-leave. If they then choose to send the children to daycare while they are still recovering, they keep the epidemic going in daycares, and this in turn puts a greater burden on the parents.”