Four in five Dutch primary schools have opted to open for whole days when lessons resume next week, according to research by broadcaster NOS involving 750 school heads.

One in ten schools has opted to open for half days and the rest have adopted a hybrid approach, the broadcaster said.

In schools which are operating a full day timetable, classes are being divided into two, with half the children being taught on one day and the other half the next. The 10% which have opted for half days will see half the children attending school in the morning and the rest in the afternoon.

Around half of school heads say they expect some teachers to stay home, but most are convinced that they will be able to cope.

Parents

Most parents also also happy their children are going back to school with half of head teachers saying a handful of parents want to keep their children home. Many of them are parents with health issues or who do not want their children to be ‘an experiment’, NOS said.

Research published by the AD on Monday, however, showed over a third of primary school teachers think re-opening schools on May 11 is too risky, and the risk of children spreading coronavirus is major worry.

The teachers want to delay the return to school until the results of the RIVM probe into the contagion risk in children have been finalised and fear they will be infected or will infect their pupils, the paper reports.