The epidemic as a ‘regulator’ of interpersonal relationships: The impact of ‘combined’ schooling on the relationship among primary school students

Abstract

The paper presents a case study whose focus is on examining the relationship among students of one fifth grade class during the period of combined schooling in the school year 2020/2021. This schooling model was introduced in order to enable appropriate physical distance among students in the classroom. Also, this was one of the important preventiv measures of the COVID-19 epidemic. Our intention is to check whether and to what extent the application of this schooling model, which included the division of classes into two groups, reflected on the mutual relations of students. We paid the most attention to friend?s relations. This paper represents an anthropological contribution to the issue of interpersonal relations among children in condition when many relations in society have changed due to the ?new normality?.