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Back to school in San Juan: how is the protocol in the first province where you return to the classrooms

2020-08-10T12:07:58.145Z


After 145 days and with only 22 cases of coronavirus since March, he resumed face-to-face education from this Monday. Students and parents, satisfied with the return.


Roxana Badaloni

08/09/2020 - 7:01

  • Clarín.com
  • Society

No kisses, hugs, handshakes, or selfies. With use of the chinstrap in the four hours of study, with a distance of two meters between the benches and breaks per batch of up to 15 students:  this is how face-to-face classes start this Monday in San Juan.

They spent 145 days of social isolation due to the coronavirus pandemic and, in an unprecedented decision in the country, the government of Peronist Sergio Uñac decided to resume face- to- face education , to narrow the inequality gap between rich and poor households. The health condition of this province in western Argentina is exceptional: only 22 cases of covid-19 since March , no community circulation of the virus and no new patients for a week.

Even with this low risk, classes only begin in 14 of the 19 municipalities of the Cuyo province, since the five municipalities of Greater San Juan with the largest population were excluded . There are 288 schools that will receive from 8 in the morning on Monday the 10,470 students in sixth grade and sixth grade in secondary school, the last years of each cycle, who will go the first week. Families could choose whether or not to send their children to school. The majority opted for yes.

The boys who enter first will have to go wash their hands in the bathrooms.

The act of returning to the classrooms will be at 9 in the town of Pocito and will be led by Uñac, who will communicate via teleconference with the Minister of Education of the Nation, Nicolás Trotta. "Each student will be given a kit of liquid soap, alcohol gel, a towel for personal use and a chinstrap , which we will replace during the month," announced the Minister of Education of San Juan, Felipe De Los Ríos.

There will be up to a maximum of 15 students per classroom . In the courses in the interior of the province that have few students, they will go every day and in those that are more numerous, one group will go to classes for a week and another will do it with guides at home. The following week the shift allocation will be reversed, according to the defined protocol.

There is a general consensus between parents and teachers who, with some fears, bet on face-to-face school. “We are stuck in learning. I want it to begin ” , Laura Avellaneda, mother of a sixth-grade student from the Larrea school, in the municipality of San Martín , tells Clarín . The teacher of her son Emiliano uploaded the WhatsApp group of the course the proposal back to school this Monday and explained that the decision was left to each family: “Although there is always something scary, I said yes. Here there is no circulation of the virus, ”explains Laura.

An essay with the distancing of banks in San Juan.

Only one family, of the 30 in the course, said they will continue with virtual classes. The rest will send the boys to school, from 8.15 to 12.15 on Monday. "I miss playing at recess and seeing my friends," says Emiliano Andino (11), standard-bearer for the primary school.

The director of the Normal Superior General Manuel Belgrano school, Claudia Yacante, anticipates that in her school, located in Caucete, "all the students who were summoned have answered yes". Another reality that they have had to face is the fear of teachers to return to face-to-face classes : “Fear always exists, because there are teachers who have parents who are at risk, or their children, and the virus is an invisible enemy, but they have the assurance that if they comply with the protocol they can prevent contagion ”.

The boys express their joy at being reunited with their classmates and their young ladies. "I never thought I was going to miss school so much , " admits Jazmín Farías (11), a student on the afternoon shift at the Normal Belgrano school, in the municipality of Caucete, 30 kilometers from the capital. The girl who has the chinstrap, alcohol gel and the graduate's T-shirt ready that she could hardly use, confesses with a reasoning that surprises for her age: “With so many days without classes, one begins to say how much I wish this had not happened ”. And she continues: “Now we all know how to take care of ourselves. We should all be aware and take precautions not to get infected ”.

His mother, Carolina Quintero (38), who has five children and runs a small business as the only family income, admits: “ This time of quarantine has been super difficult . I had to show strength, but I felt a lot of anguish when the boys cried because they couldn't go out to play or they had to stay locked up without contact with their friends ”. And he says that these almost five months have shown him the importance of physical school and the links it generates . “As much as the boys have varied study resources with computers or guides, the learning this year has not been significant. The affective bond was lacking, learning with the other, ”says this mother, who is also studying web programming.

Back to classes in San Juan. Thermometer and alcohol gel at admission.

When returning to classes, it will be mandatory for managers, teachers, non-teachers and students to enter with masks. The teacher Andrea Narváez, from the Mercedes Nievas de Castro school, located in the Municipality of Zonda, at the foot of the Sierras Azules, knows the difficulty her first-grade students have had. Most of the fathers and mothers in this rural town are day laborers, who work in the vineyard, harvest olive trees or in mines, and do not have access to computers and the internet .

“Every Sunday, with my partner María del Carmen Aguilera, we prepare the study guides and send them on an urban bus that goes to the school. There, two mothers are waiting for the photocopies to distribute with the rest of the course ”, explains the teacher. Her school has trained returning teachers to emotionally support their students . "How to contain the fears of being infected or the anguish of not being able to hug or share a game, a snack," says Miss Andrea, who has been teaching in first grade for 30 years, and who had to adapt to distance education.

Director Yacante lists some of the new habits that they must incorporate: “The bell will no longer ring, there will be no opening ceremony for the day, nor will we raise the flag. The boys will not be able to play as before at recess nor will they be able to share their supplies. We will have to wear all masks and there will be cleaning of classrooms and bathrooms every 80 minutes. Parents who want to attend for any reason, should request a prior interview by phone and families should assume the responsibility of ensuring that students do not present symptoms of covid-19 ". The director also understands that these first days it will be essential to convey to the boys that "the bond with the lady has not been lost and that she loves them much more than before."

The same dilemma faces parents. Carolina, Jasmine's mother, says that the desire to go back to school can outweigh the fear . “Around there I doubt if we are doing the right thing by letting her go, but I feel confident about the health status of the province. If we take care of her and support her together, I think it will be possible that her brothers will also return to school ”.

Mendoza. Correspondent

Source: clarin

All life articles on 2020-08-10

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