RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – El Salvador reopened this Tuesday the public schools for the semi-presential modality, in which parents decide whether or not to send their children to classes, amid health measures to prevent contagions of covid-19 and after a year of closure.
The Minister of Education, Carla Hananía de Varela, supervised the educational system’s reactivation in at least two schools in the capital and appealed to the “responsibility” of the students to avoid outbreaks of the pandemic.
She pointed out that some 5,000 schools are authorized to open their doors with 50% of their capacity, without specifying the exact number of students who will attend classes or the public schools that opened on Tuesday.
“On March 11, 2020, these doors were closed, and until this day we see our students again” and “we have worked every day so that this day you can return safely”, said Hananía de Varela at the Instituto Nacional General Manuel José Arce, in San Salvador.
She added that this return to the classroom is optional and gradual. Students who decided not to return to the classroom will continue to use digital platforms, which they used in previous months, to continue their education.
She indicated that the protocol “The joy of returning to school” is being applied, which in addition to hygiene measures, establishes students’ surveillance at four levels to prevent the spread of the virus.
These levels are the home, school transportation, teachers, and classrooms, and in case a student shows symptoms of covid-19, he/she must be transferred to a medical care center.
The Government acquired “more than one thousand tons of biosecurity supplies” to provide schools with thermometers, masks, and alcohol.
Government projections indicated that this Monday, the vaccination of all public system teachers would be concluded, and the immunization of teachers of private schools would begin.
Hanania de Varela indicated on Monday that she expects that by the second week of April, “all teachers and administrative personnel of public and private schools in the country, including higher education institutions, will be vaccinated against Covid-19”.
Last weekend El Salvador reached 65,491 official cases of covid-19 and 2,030 deaths.
Source: efe