The heavy rain that is falling in Burgas did not stop dozens of parents and teachers to protest in front of the Municipality building. Their demonstration, entitled „National Parents’ Meeting“, is against children’s testing for COVID-19, as a condition for them to attend school. The event was organized by the “United Parents Association” on Facebook, which called for:
„It’s time to unite!
To all parents, teachers, citizens of the Republic of Bulgaria – it is time to unite so that we can all, together, protect our most precious – our children. It is up to us what example we will set for our children! It depends on us what we will doom them to – slavery and genocide or a free and peaceful life!
Dear parents, it is difficult for all of us. We all have to go to work, we want our children to go to school normally and that is why I suggest that we all gather tomorrow, November 9, 2021, in front of the Municipality of Burgas at 4:30 p.m. and support the National Protest by which we show and express our position.“
We remind you that yesterday Yana Shishkova, a Chinese language teacher and administrator of the Facebook group „Teachers for a strong Bulgarian education“, commented for Iskra.bg on the reasons for the protest:
„Where a huge range of measures are being proposed that require not only a change in the role of teachers to medical people who are totally untrained in this area, but a complete change in the function of the school from an educational place to become a medical centre. When such changes are put in place, there needs to be enough information in the first place that these measures work, that they are the best that can be offered to families to keep children safe.“
At the same time, teachers and parents doubt the accuracy of the tests for students. Their fear is that there will be a huge number of false positive tests. According to Shishkova, two big problems are emerging: „The first problem is that parents also have to pay for the PCR if it comes out positive, even though the child has no symptoms. The concern is that with the corresponding implausibility for a positive result, the entire family will be quarantined. The second problem is that these tests are not active at the time of the disease, and they give a result on the 5th day, when the child itself has visible symptoms. There is no medical logic to doing these tests because they are a late measure.“
The planned measures are creating unnecessary tension between parents and school leaders, the protesters claimed. Their demonstration in Burgas is part of a national protest organized in front of the Council of Ministers in Sofia today, where dozens of families also gathered at 4:30 p.m.
