Guido Carelli Lynch
01/31/2021 4:57 PM
Clarín.com
Politics
Updated 01/31/2021 4:57 PM
After specifying that it will prioritize the return of face-to-face classes in the DNU with which it extended the preventive and mandatory social distancing (DISPO) until February 28, the Government
pushes a new protocol to regulate the return to classrooms
and common regulations in all jurisdictions.
After the opposition offensive for the return of presence, the Executive
seeks to regain control of the educational agenda
.
In 12 days, the Federal Council of Education, which brings together the ministers of the area from all over the country, will hold the first face-to-face meeting since the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic, almost a year ago.
Minister of Education Nicolás Trotta.
Photo Orlando Pelichotti / Los Andes.
The Minister of Education Nicolás Trotta, who in the next few days will finish his tour throughout the country to hear the plans of the governors of the 24 districts, is making progress on the draft of a "national" protocol to establish control and flexibility schemes.
This week he will meet with Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, the head of the City Government, the first district that plans to re-implement presence.
So far the 24 jurisdictions are governed by the protocol that the Federal Council prepared last July and with the "traffic light" that it implemented in October.
When the first resolution (364/2020) was set, the WHO considered face-to-face classes as one of the main vectors of contagion.
With that approach, an
overly restrictive
protocol was approved
, which Trotta now aims to improve.
In the Government they intend to promote classes three times a week.
"It is not a reengagement, but the indispensable return of classes"
, they affirm.
In any case, they intend to restrict or regulate the work of teachers who teach in more than one school;
many of which are geographically distant from each other.
Another issue that the Federal Council will deal with will be
how to unify the educational contents of 2020 and 2021
to avoid a deeper lag in 2022. At the Pizzurno Palace they insist that the implementation of face-to-face classes began to be orchestrated in November with the document To the classrooms.
The scene changed.
At that time, in the Government - hopeful with what they saw in Europe - they imagined a summer with many fewer cases of Covid-19.
After the rise in infections at the beginning of January, the Government does not see with such bad eyes the current average close to 9 thousand reported infections per day.
“We are building a process that allows us to strengthen presence as a rule.
The entire educational system committed to the recovery of presence, which is not a magic answer but is an irreplaceable element.
There is no room for hypocrisy.
The situation was very complex before the pandemic,
”Trotta said before
Clarín's
query
.
The allusion seems to be directed at the leaders of Together for Change who stood behind the demand for the return of presence.
In the Executive they maintain that it is false to say that Argentina renounced presence in 2020 despite the fact that classes were interrupted on March 15, before the quarantine was declared.
They only returned in a trickle with pilot experiences in some jurisdictions towards the end of the school year.
They point out that countries in the region such as Bolivia, Paraguay, and Mexico did make the decision to permanently interrupt face-to-face classes.
In the Executive they remember that it was an opposition governor, Gerardo Morales from Jujuy, the first to suspend face-to-face classes.
They also reject that public opinion has rewarded the opposition for pushing the demand for a return to the classroom.
The surveys that consume in the Cabinet show that the educational policy is also crossed by the crack: it is approved or rejected according to the affinity or the rejection of the respondents by the Government.
In the Government they indicate that if there is a significant rise in infections, other activities will be suspended,
but they will try to sustain face-to-face classes with all means.
The one million students who, according to official numbers, lost contact with the schools are worrying.
In the Executive they do not see an experience from another country that can serve as an example for Argentina.
The French Minister of Education, Jean Castex, who speaks Spanish, told Trotta about the experience in his country.
The former Buenos Aires legislator and rector of the Umet does not believe that the building improvements can help generate more suitable conditions for distancing.
However, and although it is an obligation of each district, the Government provides up to $ 50 thousand directly to schools to buy cleaning supplies.
They have also transferred $ 2.3 billion to guarantee access to water in some schools.
Students from the Eduardo Latzina Technical School No. 35, in the Villa Real neighborhood of Buenos Aires, last October.
Trotta's tour of the provinces included contacts with the guilds.
In the Government they defend the decision to include teachers among the priority groups for vaccination.
The joint discussions will go through the discussion of the return to presence in various provinces.
The Government advances in a national joint, a claim of the educational unions during the administration of Mauricio Macri.
In some jurisdictions such as Neuquén, the City, Mendoza and Chubut, among others, the position of the unions could hinder the start of classes.
With tension and on the way to a solution, the same discussion is repeated in Santa Cruz, Chaco and Tierra del Fuego.
Look also
Transportation and back to school: the plan for children to get to school in a pandemic
The Government defines the new stage of social distancing and the way in which classes will return will remain in the hands of the provinces