Out of Hungary’s 6,000 educational institutions, four nurseries and six schools have suspended classroom teaching due to coronavirus, a government official has said. Zoltán Maruzsa, state secretary of public education, told current affairs channel M1 late on Friday that there is no need to make a blanket transfer to online learning for the time being. Schools and nurseries will be continually monitored and targeted action taken, he added.
The government sees digital education as a last resort since traditional classroom teaching is “more effective in every way”, he said. According to current protocols, classroom teaching is suspended for 2-3 days, during which it is gauged whether the quarantine of the infected student has managed to stop the virus’s spread. Currently, 60-70 institutions are being actively monitored due to the suspected presence of the virus on school premises. In most cases, no further action will need to be taken, he said.