Ricardo Braginski
08/25/2020 - 14:27
- Clarín.com
- Society
The project to open schools in the City so that there will function “digital spaces” for students with problems in distance education seems to have its days numbered . Last week the Buenos Aires Ministry of Education took the operating protocol of these classrooms to the national Ministry of Education for authorization. The intention of the City is to open them next Monday and for that the authorization of the national Ministry of Education is required . According to official sources, that decision will be known this Wednesday morning.
But a video was leaked that seems to indicate that this is hardly possible: it is a meeting by Zoom that the Buenos Aires teacher unions asked Minister Trotta and in which cooperators, student centers and educational forums also participated. There, Trotta talks about “them” and “us”, and about a joint strategy against the City Government.
The meeting by videoconference took place this Monday and was requested by the UTE union, which belongs to Ctera. The minister granted them in less than 48 hours. That union had already expressed its closed opposition to the opening of schools in Capital for "digital spaces."
From UTE they consider that it is "irresponsible" to open now , in the midst of this epidemiological situation. They affirm that the health of the educational community is not being taken care of and they say that, instead of opening computerized spaces in schools, the Buenos Aires government should deliver computers connected to the Internet to students and families who need them.
In the meeting by videoconference this Monday, Minister Trotta is heard closing ranks with the unions . “They are going to want to argue with politics and we have to make them discuss with the mothers, with the fathers, with the cooperators, with the teachers , because that is where they are going to pay a social cost . Because the speech they have is a fallacious speech. There we have to uncover certain issues . That is why I trust you a lot, to help us strengthen the educational agenda. And when we are wrong, we ask them to let us know we were wrong, ”Trotta told union members.
Thus, Trotta's vision coincides with UTE's. Eduardo López, leader of that union, told Clarín last week: “It is a political mischief: they do it to break the quarantine and that the boys who do not have connectivity go there and get infected. A school is the teachers that we continue to work every day and not a building that they open to make up for the lack of the same State that does not provide computers and connectivity to children ”.
This controversy occurs in the middle of an intern in the palace on Pizzurno Street, which ended last week between Minister Trotta and his vice Adriana Puiggrós, which ended with the resignation of the vice. Official sources say that the discrepancies between the two officials have been constant since they took office in December. Trotta and Puiggrós have very different political styles and trajectories.
The "Connect at school" program promoted by the Buenos Aires government seeks to reach 634 schools (464 primary and 170 secondary), with a maximum of 15 boys for each school (with an occupancy rate of one person every 15 square meters). It is intended for all those Buenos Aires students who have had problems with pedagogical continuity in the midst of the pandemic. This may be because they don't have good connectivity, a sufficient number of devices in their homes, or because they prefer to study at school rather than at home.
The digital spaces would be enabled four hours a day (from 10 to 14). The shifts would be granted according to the capacity of the spaces and with a maximum stay of two hours . The maximum capacity per shift would be 9,450 students adding all the schools in the City. Any student could sign up.
Only students with a previously assigned shift would be allowed to enter accompanied, in the case of students under 15 years of age, by an elderly person who is living together or with their corresponding authorization. The shifts would be granted staggering the entry and exit times. And all computers would be disinfected after each shift, according to the protocol presented last week.
