Ricardo Braginski
04/14/2021 10:03 PM
Clarín.com
Society
Updated 04/14/2021 10:10 PM
This Monday, today, the Ministers of Education of the 24 jurisdictions met within the framework of the Federal Council of Education.
The reason for the meeting was to
ratify the need to prioritize the school
in the current context, as well as the continuity of face-to-face classes.
"The restrictions should not begin with the closure of schools as a first measure,
" Education Minister Nicolás Trotta said today.
He didn't just say it.
In addition, his press team produced a statement that was titled precisely that statement by Trotta.
Let's go again:
"The restrictions should not start with the closure of schools as a first measure
.
"
Meeting this Monday of the Federal Council of Education.
Presence in the country's schools was ratified.
Not only that.
From the press team they communicated especially with
Clarín
to ensure that the message has arrived and that it is published.
The message was very clear: for the national Ministry of Education it was important that the readers of this newspaper know that
the Government was going to maintain the policy agreed with all jurisdictions
, after a year of hard and long negotiations.
That is, to guarantee the health of the children and their learning,
a “careful presence”
had to be
maintained,
with the strict protocols already agreed upon.
The follies of this story continue.
The Ministry of Education presented a national survey last week that
showed that infections do not occur in schools
.
Since face-to-face classes started, 0.12% of the students enrolled throughout the country and 0.79% of teachers were infected, this study made from the data loaded by teachers from some 6,000 schools across the country showed the country in the "Caring for Schools" platform implemented by the national Ministry of Education.
Most relevant data from the official report on contgios in schools.
This same afternoon rumors began to circulate regarding the measures that President Fernández was going to present.
You heard things like secondary schools were going to be closed.
Clarín
spoke with the Buenos Aires Ministry of Education and they said
there would be no changes
.
In other words, the people of Soledad Acuña did not foresee any type of school closure.
Clarín
also spoke with spokespersons for the Ministry of Education of the Province (actually, the Directorate of Schools).
They spoke of a complex situation and continuous conversations with concerned teachers' unions and mayors.
They acknowledged that measures were being analyzed, but it did not slide at any time that it was such an extreme measure.
What happened then for such an abrupt change regarding classes?
And a more disturbing question:
Where is the authority of Minister Trotta
, who had been insisting on the need to
prioritize the school with the protocols
?
It was always said, and it was maintained, that face-to-face classes could be limited, eventually in the face of very critical health cases.
But
all the schools all at once in the best strict quarantine style?
This same Wednesday there was, yes, a novelty in the educational scene.
Two Buenos Aires teaching unions made a strike
demanding the suspension of classes.
One aligned with Kircherism, another with sectors of the left.
They are the big winners of the day.
It is hard to believe that, after a year with everything that happened -with the suffering of the locked up children, with the losses in learning, with the deepening of educational inequalities-, we will once again hear the same version of President Alberto Fernandez from the beginning of the pandemic, back in April 2020. The same one that despises education, the one that says that a year or so for a student is the same.
Let us "go slowly with that", because it is not such a priority.
Now, if the suspension of classes is due to the number of infections that are occurring,
what will happen in 15 days?
Are they going down?
And if they don't go down, what will President Fernández do?
We have already seen this story.
Closing schools is easy, it is an administrative decision.
After reopening it takes hours of negotiations.
Soup again, same story again.
And the saddest thing: once again the boys at home, those who can educate themselves through the zoom.
And the rest, who knows.