Tirana, 23 September 2021 – The Ministry of Health and Social Protection and the Ministry of Education, few days ago reconfirmed two public orders for the implementation of the measures in education facilities against Covid 19, mandatory to all schools in Albania. The new school year starts officially on 27 September 2021.
The May 2020 Order sets out the rules that students, teachers, sanitary, school principals, and parents must follow for protection from Covid on school premises.
Although the measures have a protective character, it is concerning to see that some of the measures (approved by the Technical Committee for Anti-Covid Measures of the Ministry of Health), affect the basic child rights, with a tendency to violate them.
The Order No. 289, issued by the Ministry of Health and Social Protection (Technical Committee), establishes the following:
Children are not allowed to consume food, inside the classrooms or schools.
Children are obliged to be disinfected every day. Teachers must spray children’s hands with alcohol while children are obliged to clean their shoes in chlorinated water baths at the school entrance.
The indoor environment should be always ventilated, which means that classrooms windows should be always kept open.
Finally, it is forbidden to take long breaks between lessons, which are generally used by children to eat, play games, or meet their vital needs.
CRCA / ECPAT has carefully read the protocols recommended by the WHO or from other countries, but we were not able to identify in any case a country or a recommendation that prohibits children from consuming food cooked at home or purchased while attending school. Moreover, institutions in the US and Europe confirm that there is no link between food consumption and Covid.
Knowing that a good part of the children, due to poverty and social conditions, do not consume a meal at night, but mostly breakfast cooked by the family, it means that the order deprives children of access to food, thus openly violating their right to survival and development.
Meanwhile, repeated use of alcohol tends to harm children. Added to this concern is the use of chemical solutions (liquid chlorine), which is known to damage the respiratory system. Finally, keeping windows open all the time not only exposes children to environmental conditions, such as dust or smog, but during the approaching winter, it also exposes them to the cold, when it is known that most schools in Albania do not have central heating in place.
Based on the above, CRCA/ECPAT Albania recommends to both Ministries and in particular to the Technical Committee to urgently review these measures, making them more suitable for children to follow. We do not believe that two systems, health, and education, can punish children for their actions. This would be unacceptable!
Although the Government and its institutions have a responsibility to establish rules to protect all citizens from Covid, these rules cannot violate the rights of children. In our opinion, lack of consultations of the Orders and the lack of transparency, with civil society, experts and the children themselves, makes them not only undemocratic, but also contrary to the spirit of the Law on the Rights and Protection of Children, as well as the UN CRC Convention, to which Albania is a member-state since 1992.
We publicly demand the start of a wide public consultation to revise the Orders, but also their adjustments based only on children’s needs. We also demand full transparency regarding the number of children affected by Covid in Albania.
For more information, contact:
CRCA / ECPAT Albania
Cel: +355675002025 E-mail: crca@crca.al
Media contact:
Albana Mustafaraj E-mail: albana.mustafaraj@crca.al