January 7, 2022 at 10:20 am
The Health Authorities are responsible to enforce quarantine and not schools
Following the changes in procedures by Health Authorities regarding quarantine and the decision announced that release letters shall no longer be issued, the MUT outlined the added difficulties on schools resulting from this decision. Before the announced changes, schools requested release letters as proof that the quarantine period has elapsed before admitting students to school. However, the onus to calculate quarantine and its termination date is now on the individual, based on working models provided by the Health Authorities.
The MUT noted that there shall be situations whereby students who should be in mandatory quarantine attend school instead, and it shall be difficult for schools to monitor the situation in the absence of release letters. The reply from Health Authorities to this assertion was that the responsibility to ensure that individuals respect quarantine is of the Health Authorities, and it is not the responsibility of schools.
To this effect, the MUT communicated with the Ministry for Education and Sport whereby it declared that no school management can shoulder any responsibility for having students attending school instead of remaining in quarantine following the discontinuation of the quarantine release letter.
