News

The Basque Government''s Councillor for Education, Isabel Celaá, confirmed that there are "no plans to put back the start of the school term", with regards to Flu A, and explained that a special Commission had been created to keep an eye on possible developments of the virus within a school environment.

The head of Education along with the Councillor for Health, Santiago Bengoa, were in Vitoria-Gasteiz advising on the measures that will be put in place in schools as from next week to deal with flu A.

Celaá wanted to communicate primarily to family, pupils and school staff that the government had received no information that advised them to delay the start of the new school term.

As such, she signalled that the scholastic term would commence on the usual date in September for all Infant, Primary and Secondary institutions, as would the new university semester.

Nevertheless, Celaá also indicated that a series of specific measures would be put into place to deal with the flu epidemic, for which they had created a special Commission to monitor the issue flu A within schools.

Celaá also said that all Basque educational centres, public and private (of which there are 1,312) prior to starting the new term, would be supplied with informative posters, of which a total of 8000 are available, and that pupils would receive leaflets about flu A, of which 500,000 copies have been printed. Parents will receive a circular outlining the symptoms of the virus.

The councillor, who also made it known that alongside Eudal (the Association of Basque Councils) she would be involved in an action protocol with educational institutions, signalled that the decision to close a school would be up to its individual heads, but that before doing so "there were many more steps that could be taken".