In a guideline published on its website, the Directorate-General for Health (DGS) says that each group of students should be assigned a zone of the school and that each classroom should be used by the same group of students, to prevent contamination by covid-19.

The physical distance (1.5 to two metres) should be kept outside and inside the classroom, with the desks arranged as close as possible to the walls and windows, preventing students from facing each other.

The rooms and other interior spaces used by the students must be ventilated, preferably opening windows and doors. If air conditioning is used, the extraction mode should be chosen and never the air recirculation mode.

The DGS also says that spaces not necessary for teaching, such as buffets / bars, support rooms, student social rooms and others, should be closed.

DGS insists on the importance of disinfecting surfaces to prevent the transmission of covid-19 in community settings, remembering that the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes the disease, “can survive on different surfaces for hours (copper and cardboard) a few days (plastic and stainless steel) ”.

Additional disinfection cleaning measures in schools should cover laboratories, computer rooms, classrooms, libraries, teachers' rooms, cafeterias, sanitary facilities and isolation areas and that each school's hygiene plan should define what it cleans itself, when, with what products and who cleans it, it must be known by the professionals involved and be posted in a visible place.

In order to increase the training of non-teaching staff responsible for cleaning and disinfecting the school building and for waste management, “training by the national group of the Program for the Prevention and Control of Infection and Resistance to Antimicrobials should be safeguarded, whenever possible” ( PPCIRA), as well as the Armed Forces, within the scope of the disinfection and awareness actions that are taking place ”, defines the DGS.

If any suspicious cases are identified at the school, they should be referred to the isolation area that the schools must have and the Health 24 line should be contacted.

The return to classes in person, which starts on the 18th of May, covers students from the 11th and 12th years (only subjects with national exam) and those from the 2nd and 3rd years of the Double Courses Secondary Education Certification.

The tutelage had already sent out guidelines to schools at the beginning of the month, which, among other measures, indicated that the classes of the different subjects of each class should be concentrated in the morning or afternoon to prevent classes from having free time between classes.

These guidelines from the Directorate-General for School Establishments (DGEstE) do not define a maximum limit on the number of students per class, but does provide rules for the layout of classrooms, which must be “large and airy”.

If the number of students in the class and the dimensions of the classrooms make it impossible to comply with this rule, schools may divide the classes and use, for that purpose, “teachers with availability in their teaching component”.

DGEstE also foresees that, “if this or another route are not viable, the teaching load of the subjects taught in person can be reduced by up to 50%, organizing moments of autonomous work at other times”.