01/15/2021 11:28 AM
Clarín.com
Society
Updated 01/15/2021 11:28 AM
The Buenos Aires government and the education unions of the City of Buenos Aires hold a meeting at the headquarters of the educational portfolio to discuss the terms of the return of classes in the district, scheduled for February 17.
The meeting began after 10.30 am, at the Ministry's headquarters in the 31st neighborhood of Retiro, and according to sources from the Buenos Aires government, "it is part of a participatory process to talk with specialists, NGOs, teachers, parents and students about what the 2020 and the challenges of 2021 ".
"Today we are
planning a start of classes with the greatest possible presence
. We want 100 percent of the boys in schools," said the spokesmen.
Meanwhile, the teachers' unions, consulted by Télam, anticipated that they will bring to the meeting complaints about school infrastructure, delays in their salaries and warn that
the return to classes will depend on how the health situation is.
"For us, education is a total priority. We are planning to do so from February 17 with the greatest possible presence. There is nothing more important to us than education," said the head of the Buenos Aires Government, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, on Monday. the return to official activity after being discharged from his coronavirus infection.
Mariana Scayola, general secretary of the Ademys union, indicated that the return to the classroom "
will depend on the health situation at that time
. Last year we rejected the return to the presence with a number of cases similar to what there is now."
"On the one hand, the process of bubbles that had been raised was rejected, but there are also issues such as the demand for more teaching staff, more cleaning assistants to condition the classrooms and guarantee adequate ventilation in overcrowded classes," he added.
The head of Ademys also pointed to the salary issue, stating that "to think about a return to school, we must discuss salaries, since in 2020 we are 15 points below inflation, and it is a process that has been taking place for years. We ask for a salary recovery in which the salary is linked to inflation and we do not have to see how we get to the end of the month. "
Regarding the vaccination campaign, he affirmed that the union does not know when it will begin, although he evaluated that "it is unlikely that everyone can be vaccinated between here and February 17."
A picture of the 7th graders' return to school at Ayohuma Girls School District 8 Elementary School No. 7, last October.
Photo: Andres D'Elia.
Another of the teachers' unions, UTE-Ctera, had objected to the beginning of classes by indicating that the country is going through "
a very critical health situation
" due to the increase in cases of coronavirus.
"
Classes can begin on February 17, what we do not know is if there will be presence
, because what is under discussion is whether there are sanitary conditions and infrastructure and materials to do some kind of presence," he said in radio statements Angélica Graciano, general secretary of the union.
In this context, he stressed that "there is no serious, responsible or planning approach, there is nothing, there are only marketing announcements since December and since the beginning of this year that propose this type of slogan, but there is no planning work that involves to the actors of the educational system ".
The discussion about the resumption of face-to-face classes, after a year marked by virtuality due to the pandemic, remained at the center of the debate since last week when the Chief of Staff, Santiago Cafiero, warned that this was subject to the health situation .
Although the Minister of Education, Nicolás Trotta, confirmed this week that each province will determine the date and modality of the return to classes, the pressure for it to be in person is increasing.
Even former president Mauricio Macri joined the claim.
"Open the schools," the former president wrote on his Facebook account, in a long message in which he asked that this decision not be left in the hands "of the union leaders."
With information from Télam.
JPE
Look also
"Open the schools", Mauricio Macri's claim to the Government
"Macri is past, don't be cynical", the Government's response to the request of the former president to "open the schools"