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‘Textbooks should be like desks: always free’

The mother of two has already managed to collect 196,000 signatures for a campaign she hopes will make the Spanish government drop textbook prices and introduce book banks.

'Textbooks should be like desks: always free'
Spanish parents will pay an average of €189 per child in a public state school and €243 per child in a private institution. Photo: Randen Pedersen

Elena Alfaro is receiving widespread support from Spanish families who have either grown tired of paying high prices for school textbooks every year or who simply can’t afford them.

"It’s not fair that kids have to go through this," Alfaro tells Spanish news agency Europa Press.

"They end up not wanting to go to school because they feel isolated if they don’t have the newest books."

Alfaro argues the problem “can’t be resolved with charity”, but rather with an alternative system like book ownership by the school themselves.

The scheme, which is common in most European countries, sees parents paying a small deposit for the books that are lent to the pupils – a sum they get back when the textbooks are returned at the end of the school year.

According to Alfaro, this book-lending system is only being applied in regions like Andalusia, the Basque Country and Aragon.

Although her campaign has been gathering increasing attention and signatures, the mother of two has had no success yet with the Education Ministry and Spain’s ombudsman.

"Text books should be like desks: available and free from the start of the school year," Alfaro argues.

"The current system makes no sense and we’ve been dragging it along since the start of democracy in Spain. It’s time to say 'enough'."

According to a survey by Spain Consumer Organization (OCU),Spanish parents will pay an average of €189 per child in a public state school and €243 per child in a private institution.

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SCHOOL

Bavaria plans 100 million rapid Covid tests to allow all pupils to return to school

In the southern state of Bavaria, schools have been promised 100 million self-tests starting next week so that more children can start being taught in person again. But teachers say the test strategy isn't being implemented properly.

Bavaria plans 100 million rapid Covid tests to allow all pupils to return to school
Children in the classroom in Bavaria. Photo:Matthias Balk/DPA

State leaders Markus Söder said on Friday that the first 11 million of the DIY tests had already arrived and would now be distributed through the state.

“It’s no good in the long run if the testing for the school is outside the school,” Söder told broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR) during a visit to a school in Nuremberg.

“Contrary to what has been planned in Berlin, we’ve pre-ordered in Bavaria: for this year we have 100 million tests.”

Bavaria, Germany’s largest state in terms of size, plans to bring all children back into schools starting on Monday.

SEE ALSO: ‘The right thing to do’ – How Germany is reopening its schools

However, high coronavirus case rates mean that these plans have had to be shelved in several regions.

In Nuremberg, the state’s second largest city, primary school children have been sent back into distance learning after just a week back in the classroom.

The city announced on Friday that schools would have to close again after the 7-day incidence rose above 100 per 100,000 inhabitants.

The nearby city of Fürth closed its schools after just two days of classroom time on Wednesday, after the 7-day incidence rose to 135.

The Bavarian test strategy plans for school children to receive one test per week, while teachers have the possibility of taking two tests a week. The testing is not compulsory.

But teachers’ unions in the southern state have warned that the test capacity only exists on paper and have expressed concern that their members will become infected in the workplace.

“Our teachers are afraid of infection,” Almut Wahl, headmistress of a secondary school in Munich, told BR24.

“Officially they are allowed to be tested twice a week, we have already received a letter about this. But the tests are not there.”

BR24 reports that, contrary to promises made by the state government, teachers in many schools have still not been vaccinated, ventilation systems have not been installed in classrooms, and the test infrastructure has not been put in place.

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