EFE.- Mexican children and adolescents are preparing for a controversial return to face-to-face classes this Monday after a year and a half of distance education, despite the fact that some parents and the opposition are against it due to the third wave of covid-19 that the country suffers.
Last Friday, the Secretary of Public Education, Delfina Gómez, assured that the return to classes will be “voluntary and safe” and “for this, the three levels of government have participated together with the parents.”
Gómez explained that parents were asked to enroll their children in the school year, regardless of whether they decide to go to class or not, so that they can return when they want and are not considered part of the dropout.
On safety for workers, the secretary said that more than 3 million people were vaccinated against Covid-19 with the Chinese drug CanSino and that an intensive workshop was given on “strategies and commitments” for returning to school. .
Also read: CanSino recommends a booster of your vaccine at 6 months
From August 30 to September 10, it will be analyzed how children arrive in terms of knowledge, but also in relation to their emotional situation.
Public colleges and universities closed in March 2020 at the start of the pandemic, sent their 33 million students home, and since then classes have been taught on television, the internet and radio.
Although some states have opened their schools intermittently when the pandemic has allowed it, this will be the first widespread return to school across the country.
Only two of the 32 states, Baja California Sur and Michoacán, have already advanced that they will not reopen their classrooms for now; Sinaloa, in addition, will not start today either due to the effects of Hurricane Nora.
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The authorities estimate that 5.2 million students of all educational levels dropped out last year for distance classes.
The Ministry of Health of Mexico reported on Saturday that 257,150 deaths were reached and a total of 3 million 328,863 infections, in the middle of the third wave of the pandemic.
The Mexican government insisted this week that there is “a clear sign” of decline in this wave despite recent records of infections.
“The debate around the return to school should not be reduced to a political issue, since the priority of all social sectors must be the welfare of children in the short, medium and long term,” said the Catholic Church on Sunday in its editorial of the weekly desde la fe.
For this reason, the institution called on the authorities so that the return to schools after almost 18 months has a “comprehensive strategy” that reduces the risk of infections and looks after the health of “students, teachers, work personnel and parents”.
In addition, he insisted that it is necessary to focus on those students who will not return under equal conditions and especially on those who will not return, a situation derived from “educational disparities.”
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