A spokeswoman for the Serbian Teachers Union said on Thursday that the Education Ministry decision to keep children in schools was wrong.

Teacher and Union spokeswoman Jasna Jankovic told N1 that pediatricians believe that children should stay at home given the epidemiological situation. She said that she sees no way to implement social distancing measures in classrooms with 30-35 children in them. “I believe that three percent of children are infected but this is the first time that I have heard pediatricians say that this is a virus that should keep children at home,” she said.

“The Schools team took the wrong decision. Recall that we extended the winter vacation when we had the common flu and now that we have 17-18,000 people infected and we’re pretending that everything is all right. Pupils in grades 1 to 4 will go back to school with a recommended social distance of one meter. We have been going around in circles for two years, releasing daily infection numbers and on the other hand we are demanding that children keep a meter apart. I don’t see how that is possible,” Jankovic said.

Jankovic said that she can’t believe that Education Minister Branko Ruzic made no mention of the number of teachers who have been infected. “Teachers, professors, educators are in schools and there is no data on them,” she said.