08/26/2020 - 10:13
- Clarín.com
- Society
"We are not going to follow the protocol." The Minister of Education of the Nation, Nicolás Trotta, formally lowered his thumb to the project of the Buenos Aires Government to open schools in the City so that “digital spaces” function for students with problems with distance education. "We don't want to compromise our students or teachers on what it should be like to go back to schools," Trotta said.
Last week, the Buenos Aires Ministry of Education brought the operating protocol for these classrooms to the palace on Calle Pizzurno. The intention of the City is to open them next Monday and for that it required the approval of the national Ministry of Education. That resolution was known this Wednesday morning, via Zoom, although the rejection of the protocol was anticipated.
On Tuesday a video had leaked that already seemed to indicate what the definition would be. It shows a meeting by Zoom that the "Multisectorial por la Educación Pública" (an opposition organization to the Buenos Aires government that brings together teachers from the UTE-Ctera union, cooperators and student centers) asked Trotta. There, the minister speaks of "them" and "us", and of a joint strategy against the Buenos Aires government.
That Zoom meeting was this Monday and was transmitted by the UTE union from its Facebook account. That union had already expressed its closed opposition to the opening of schools in Capital for "digital spaces."
In that Zoom, Minister Trotta stated: “They are going to want to discuss 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 that we were wrong. "
The decision of the Buenos Aires government to open computer cabinets received, from the outset, the opposition of some unions. One of them is UTE, which considered 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.
With reference to the opening of "digital spaces", Eduardo López, UTE leader, told Clarín last week: “It is a political mischief: they do it to break the quarantine and that children who do not have connectivity 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.
In Monday's Zoom, Trotta also talks about the need to "recover public education, the role of the State." “Given the impact of the pandemic, we have prioritized health care. Each of the decisions must be substantiated; It is not a more or less related government, we do not care who governs that particular province. We will have an opinion and we will support our decision and we will take care of the porteños and the porteñas ”, he said.
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, because they do not have good connectivity, enough devices in their homes, or because they prefer to study at school instead of 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 older 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 and that today will have its final verdict.
ACE