After a six-month shutdown, the longest in Europe, Italy has reopened most of its schools, testing the organisational skills of the government, the nerves of teachers and the self-control of excited students.

“There is a huge sense of excitement both on the part of us teachers and the children. We are very happy to see each other again, but it is also a struggle not to get too close,” said Patrizia Zucchetta, a primary school teacher in Rome.

“At the beginning there are going to be problems,” Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte acknowledged yesterday.

Many of the new 2.4 million single desks needed to guarantee social distancing, have failed to arrive in time, unions say, while thousands of teaching positions remain vacant and older staffers have expressed concerns about the risks they face.

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