Data on the course of vaccinations to pupils and students, gave the Minister of Education, Niki Kerameos, speaking earlier today at the plenary session of the House of Representatives. «Right now our teachers, in primary and secondary education, are vaccinated at a rate of more than 82%. And in our children there is an increase. Is it enough? No. I'm going to say it directly, it's not enough and it is the duty of all of us, each and every one of us in this room, to convince parents of how important it is for our children to be vaccinated. On how we protect them first, how we shield them much more through the vaccine,» said the Minister of Education and informed the national delegation, «In children with a dose of a booked appointment, we are at 35% for ages 15 to 18 years, and at 17% for ages 12-14 years. At universities the rates are much higher and have even changed within the last week. Last week they were saying that the percentage of students who have already been vaccinated with a dose or gotten sick is 73%. This morning it is over 75.5% in students. On staff, over 87% vaccinated with two doses. In faculty members, over 91% vaccinated with two doses.».
«I think with all this the educational community sends a strong message of return to normality, making use of this unique gift of science, the vaccine,» the Education Minister said. In addition to the measures, the government, as Niki Kerameos stressed, the government has planned increased checks, both laboratory and self-diagnostic, all free of charge, for students.
«If there is an outbreak within a department, it can end up with students who were sitting near the outbreak having to take 7 tests a week, laboratory and self-diagnostic. All free of charge from the state,» the minister said, stressing that the government is investing in many intensive checks, even though they cost a lot of money, to stop the spread and to further protect the school community.
Niki Kerameos said that there is a different philosophy compared to last year's protocols that closed a section when a child became ill, to prevent the spread of the virus in the home. «Now all these people are either already vaccinated or, if they are not, they can be vaccinated free of charge by the state. On the other hand, we have a debt to provide education,» the education minister said, adding: «if the same protocols were in place this year, what message would get through about vaccination? Since a significant amount of vaccination has been done, education must also continue. To do this, we are investing and spending significantly large sums in laboratory and self-diagnostic tests to shield the face-to-face operation.».
In addition, said Niki Kerameos, the edupass platform was created, which is interconnected with the National Vaccination Registry, the National Patient Registry, a special platform of the digital certificate covid19 and the compliance with the health conditions is checked by both the academic community and the school community.
Universities have also been given the possibility to hire additional staff to check compliance with health requirements. Provision was also made for vaccination centres within the universities, and all this in view of the increased rate of vaccination in universities.
The Minister of Education referred to the progress of vaccinations during the discussion of a topical question of the Change Movement on the government's policy in the field of education. The difficult equation of the pandemic and the risks associated with the return of pupils and students, combined with the vaccination rates among adolescents, was the subject of the interventions of all the MPs of the Change Movement who spoke in the plenary session.
