Ricardo Braginski
06/11/2020 - 16:59
- Clarín.com
- Society
Mandatory chinstraps for boys from 7 years ; cycles of four days of classes and ten of “rest” (Israeli model); school days of only 3 hours ; These are some of the elements contained in the protocol for the return to face-to-face classes in which the City Government is working, as Clarín could know .
Although there is not yet a date for the return to the classrooms, the Buenos Aires Government is advancing in the elaboration of the post-pandemic school protocol, from different "work tables" in which the Minister of Education in charge Luis Bullrich, epidemiologists, participate. and specialists in education, childhood, and urban space and transportation.
The classes would only return in August and, at the beginning, only in the seventh grade of primary school and the last year of secondary school (5th or 6th depending on the school). In a second stage the first grade boys will join. And then, little by little, the rest. The final document with the protocol would be presented to the national authorities in early July, for authorization.
From the point of view of the school organization, the proposal that gained the most ground is the Israeli model. It consists of dividing the school in two. Half of the boys would go four days in a row, from Monday to Thursday; and then they would study at home for 10 days . The following week the other half of the school would also go from Monday to Thursday, and then they would stay home for 10 days.
What is sought with this model is that, if there is a contagion, it may be easier to isolate the infected children in groups . In addition, there are 10 days to determine if symptoms arise in some children who remain at that time in their homes. This scheme also serves not to saturate teachers as much.
The idea is that those teachers or professors who cannot attend in person due to being within risk groups can teach, in a virtual way, those boys who are ten days in a row at home.
One of the main concerns is what will happen to those children whose parents have to return to work in person. How will the question of the ten days of virtual classes be solved?
The face-to-face school days will be much shorter. Never more than three hours. Both breakfast and snack will be given in the classrooms, so as not to use the dining rooms.
Education officials are waiting for Health to tell them if it is okay that there is a 2 meter distance between the desk of one boy and the desk of another. If more space is needed, it is envisaged that the schools be divided into 3 parts instead of 2.
Income will be staggered, every 10 or 15 minutes. No children will be allowed to bring toys or a ball to school or anything from home that is not related to school activities. The recesses will be in batches, with few boys and a strict control will be implemented in the entrance and inside the bathrooms.
There is also a lack of health approval, but the idea is that all boys wear chinstraps, from 7 years onwards.
In addition, the desks will be for each boy. And they cannot be exchanged for another. In addition, it must be ensured that it is completely disinfected from one day to the next. The same with all the computing elements. Cleaning measures must be taken before and after use.
Transportation is one of the main concerns. In the protocol that is being studied, it is established that the school buses must reduce the number of boys they carry, and that there should be no more than two boys for each row of seats.
From the pedagogical point of view, there are no such concrete advances. What will be sought is that the majority of students complete this year the educational material corresponding to the 2020 school year, without anything happening for the year 2021.
For that, from the Buenos Aires Ministries of Education they had already signed a resolution with the priority contents of each grade and year. There is still no definition as to whether or not the numerical scores will return.
Teachers will have to return to school two weeks before classes start again to work on the new school cycle planning.
In four "tables"
To define all these aspects of back to school, the Buenos Aires Ministry of Education is working on four “tables”. The one of the sanitary protocol with infectious medicine doctors; the system organization table : with managers, specialists, unions and non-teaching staff; the one in charge of elaborating the pedagogical proposal for face-to-face: with specialists, managers and teachers; and that of the “social consensus for the return”: with specialists, students, parents, managers and teachers, unions and non-teaching staff.
The health protocol table is working on the analysis of the Israeli model, the general distancing guidelines and classroom layout, the anti-contagion barriers according to the levels, the disinfection of the school and cleaning routines, the disinfection of the garments and effects personal, and the positive case protocol for detecting Covid-19 cases (self-executing task sequences).
The organization table of the system is advancing with the internal organization of the schools, cleaning and maintenance; the expected behavior of students, the organization of teachers according to the virtual-face-to-face proposal, the duration of the day, the staggering of entry and exit times, how to implement the food service, and training for driving teams, teachers and non-teachers.
The table of the pedagogical proposal works in the process of content leveling, the compulsory or not of the return to classes, the reconstruction of the links between the students, how the evaluations will be, the articulation between the levels so that the children can close the cycle of the better way, the orientations for physical education classes, laboratories, workshops, recesses, the role of recess and socio-educational programs.
Finally, the “Social Consensus for the return” table is working on what variables should be considered to define the population that returns (what to do with parents who have to work?), Communication to the system and families, expectations of the actors in the system, and how to work on the fears that may appear in the students.
From the Buenos Aires Government they also say that they will work a lot on the emotional aspects of the teachers , through different virtual accompaniment activities and, eventually, with the assistance of mental health professionals.