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Bubble classrooms and anti-Covid kit in the backpack: this was the return to classes in San Juan after the coronavirus quarantine

2020-08-10T18:43:22.590Z


10,470 students from 14 municipalities started. The desks are 1.5 meters apart. "We celebrate this first step so that other provinces with equal health status can return," said Minister Trotta.


Roxana Badaloni

08/10/2020 - 15:12

  • Clarín.com
  • Society

Saint John passed the first trial by fire . This Monday, at 8.15, face-to-face classes for boys in the last year of primary and secondary school returned in 288 schools. "We celebrate this passage of San Juan so that other provinces with the same health status can advance in a safe return," said the Minister of Education of the Nation, Nicolás Trotta, in a videoconference with the San Juan governor Sergio Uñac.

The tension and excitement were perceived among students, faculty and staff. A policeman guarded the front of each school. To the uniform, white smock or blue jumpsuit, it was necessary to add the chinstrap and a hygiene kit that each boy received: with a towel, soap and alcohol gel . "They took our temperature at the school door and we went to the classroom, each one had an assigned number that coincided with the bench where we had to sit," says jasmine Farías (11), from the Normal school, in the municipality of Caucete.

The classrooms have been arranged in a bubble system, with facing benches, and where there is a distance of at least 1.5 meters  between students. There can be up to 15 students per class . The rest of the course will go next week. Those who started today will have to continue with virtual classes or with printed guides from their homes. 

The teachers wore acetate masks, in addition to the face mask, and had to verify that the classroom was ventilated at all times , with an open door or window. The maximum time they can stay in the course is 80 minutes. Recess is by batch, no more than 15 students in the yard, you can not run, touch a partner, or share a snack.

A student in the expected return to the classroom.

The official opening ceremony was at the 12 de Agosto de Pocitos school , 30 kilometers from San Juan. In addition to Trotta, the Vice Minister Adriana Puiggrós and the Minister of Education of San Juan, Felipe De Los Ríos, participated by video conference.

Upon entering the newly remodeled school, Governor Uñac could not control his instinct, especially in the case of a politician, to touch the boys . Although he started waving with his elbow to the students who were returning to face-to-face classes, the San Juan president caressed the cheek, head or arm of each boy who was waiting in the hall.

"We have returned to all economic activities and it was the right time for San Juan to take this first step, neither more nor less than in the land of the great teacher of America, " said Uñac, highlighting the figure of Domingo Faustino Sarmiento. And he clarified that if there are changes in the sanitary status of the province - where there is no community circulation of the virus - there may be a reversal: "We know that we are in a pandemic and if we have to review the situation, we will do it."

The governor said that the sense of the return to school was for rural education to feel strengthened and to grant equal opportunities . He recalled that the parents decided "voluntarily" if they accepted their children to return or wanted them to continue studying at home with the guides distributed by each school.

Part of the routine of the day in a school in San Juan.

There are 10,470 students from 14 municipalities, of the 19 that the province has. They began the guys from the last year of the primary and secondary . By September, students from the municipalities Rivadavia, Chimbas, Santa Lucía, Rawson and the capital, which make up Greater Santiago, are expected to start.

Kevin, a sixth grader in Pocitos, was happy to meet 10 of his classmates again, halfway through the course: “I was early. They have explained to me that I have to salute with the elbow, wash my hands and keep a distance with my friends, "he said with his bicycle in hand.

San Juan has recorded 22 positive cases since the pandemic began. This Monday another four positive cases were confirmed but they are residents outside the province. Among them are two carriers from Buenos Aires and Mendoza, which are not counted as their own cases.

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Source: clarin

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