Science and Education Minister Radovan Fuchs said on Friday that everything was ready for the beginning of the new school year, that all children would be attending face-to-face classes and that clear epidemiological rules for schools had been made known.

Students who test positive for the virus will have to stay at home until they recover, while others will go to school normally, keeping a physical distance from each other and not having to wear face masks, the minister said ahead of the start of the new school year on 6 September.

As for school halls, school buses and other means of public transportation, students will have to wear protective masks.

Speaking of the vaccination of employees in the education system, Fuchs called on those who had not been vaccinated to do so.

As for the vaccination rate, he said that it was around 60% in high schools, around 72% at universities and close to 80% in research institutions.

He said that efforts would be made to keep the vaccination rate in the education sector above the vaccination rate in the general population.

That is the only way to keep schools open, he said.