More than a third of eligible school pupils in Poland have been vaccinated against COVID-19 since those aged 12 and above were allowed to start registering for jabs in early June.
However, since schools began a campaign offering vaccinations at the start of this month, only 48,000 children have been signed up by their parents, with some headteachers and schools associations reporting low interest.
According to education ministry figures, just over a third (34.4%) of all school children aged between 12 and 18 years have now been vaccinated. The percentage is highest among the oldest teenagers, with 46.5% of 18-year-olds being vaccinated, dropping to 35.2% for 15-year-olds and just under 22% of 12-year-olds.
The highest rates for every year group were in Masovia province, where Warsaw is located, while the lowest were in Podkarpacie, which also has the third-lowest vaccine rate for the general population.
“The more people are vaccinated, the faster we will achieve population immunity, and thus it will be possible to work in schools without the need to introduce restrictions,” said the education ministry in a statement.
On the right, the % of people fully vaccinated against covid in individual counties in Poland. On the left, current covid infection rates (via @PiotrekT: https://t.co/EiwsKSvCFz) pic.twitter.com/G9CXRBcWkD
— Daniel Tilles (@danieltilles1) September 11, 2021
But the ministry’s drive has reportedly caused problems for some school administrators, who have been burdened with organising vaccine points or school visits to such outlets.
“Additional obligations have been imposed on us, which distract us from our basic tasks,” Maciej Jakubowski, headteacher of a primary school in Czersk, northern Poland, where just 5% of students have registered for the vaccine, told Gazeta Wyborcza. “We are obliged to prepare vaccination campaigns, and responsible for the entire GDPR [data protection] policy.”
According to a survey by the National Association of Educational Staff (OSKKO), an organisation with 6,000 members, many schools have had no vaccine sign-ups at all. Its representative told Gazeta Wyborcza that some headteachers have been even threatened with lawsuits by parents opposed to vaccination.
Some 10,626 schools in Poland are now collaborating with vaccine points. Of these, 1,398 will offer jabs on their premises and 9,067 will organise vaccines for their pupils at public points.
As part of the educational campaign held in the first week of September, meetings with parents were organised in 13,804 schools across Poland. Teachers conducted classes with students on health issues in more than 15,000 schools and other institutions, reports Interia.
Poland’s government gave the go-ahead for children aged 12 to 15 to begin receiving Pfizer jabs on 7 June. That made over 2.5 million children eligible for vaccines at the time, according to official estimates.
Minors have been able to vaccinate at the same locations as adults. Legal guardians need to give their consent for the procedure but are not required to be present during the jab itself.
More than 50% of Poland’s population – over 19.1 million people – have now been fully vaccinated. After initially proceeding at roughly the same rate as the EU average, the country’s rollout has fallen significantly behind in the last three months amid a decline in registrations.
Main image credit: Anna Leder/Twitter
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Maria Wilczek is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She is a regular writer for The Times, The Economist and Al Jazeera English, and has also featured in Foreign Policy, Politico Europe, The Spectator and Gazeta Wyborcza.
