COVID: High schools reopen in four more regions

(ANSA) - ROME, JAN 18 - High schools in four more regions reopened on Monday, with around 640,000 pupils finally going back to class in Lazio, Molise, Piedmont and Emilia Romagna.
    The nation's high-school students were meant to return to class for 50% of their lessons a week ago, having the other 50% via distance leaning, having been on 100% distance learning before the Christmas holidays.
    But many regions postponed the return to class of high-school students due to high levels of COVID-19 contagion.
    So only around 300,000 high-school students in Tuscany, Abruzzo and Valle D'Aosta actually managed to return to school last week.
    Students occupied two schools in Milan last week to protest against the situation on Lombardy.
    A group calling it the School Defence Committee put locks and chains on the entrance to the Lombardy Regional Schools Office overnight, leaving a banner saying "Closed due to Incompetence".
    Education Minister Lucia Azzolina has said that she was worried that many of Italy's high-school students have still not been able to return to their classrooms.
    "The youngsters need to vent their social nature. I am very worried," Azzolina told RAI radio..
    "Distance leaning can no longer work today.
    "There is a sociality black out.
    "The young people are angry and disorientated and I'm worried about an explosion of scholastic desperation".
    Around 200 elementary and middle school classes are in quarantine in Veneto because of cases of contagion following the Christmas holidays. (ANSA).