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The mayor of São Paulo, Bruno Covas (PSDB), announced today that he will authorize the reopening of public and private schools in the capital, starting on October 7, to carry out extracurricular activities. From the same date, the resumption of face-to-face teaching for higher education will be authorized.
According to Covas, the decision to authorize the reopening of schools is valid for students from municipal, state and private schools in the city. According to the city, the resumption will be voluntary and not mandatory, both for schools and students. All schools must meet a 35% capacity limit, as mandated by state-established protocol.
No date has yet been set for school activities to return to school units. The municipal secretary of Education, Bruno Caetano, affirmed that November 3 could be a possible date for this return.
“In relation to students from 0 to 17 years, responsibility of the municipality, state and private network, we will announce the extracurricular activities from October 7,” said Covas at a press conference.
“It is a way of modulating, of verifying when this happens in the city of São Paulo, so that it does not have to go backwards. So far, the city of Sao Paulo has managed to open the flexibility process without having to go backwards,” he said.
The municipal secretary of Education, Bruno Caetano, pointed out that among the extracurricular activities that can be offered are free courses, such as language or music classes. “These are activities that are already taking place in the city of São Paulo and, as of October 7, public and private schools are authorized to do so.”
Mixed academic year and full-time teaching
Also according to Caetano, the city has taken due care to ensure that the return to school is done safely.
“The necessary equipment has already been purchased. There are 2 million masks purchased, 300 thousand masks, review of cleaning contracts, hiring 3,000 new educators to replace professionals over 60, renovation of more than a third of our schools, transfers of R $ 85 million to our schools, so that additional purchases can be made questions that the Ministry of Education cannot see in a centralized way, passing resources to the directors ”, he announced.
The secretary also highlighted the “effort of students to recover learning.” To do this, among other measures, it announced the mix of the academic courses of 2020 and 2021, the adoption of full-time education -with reinforcement in the following hours- and an evaluation to analyze the performance of students in the resumption of classes .
“This reinforcement will presuppose a diagnostic evaluation, a small test that will be administered to all students in our network when they return to school. This evaluation will be very important to know what each student has learned, ”said Bruno Caetano.
“The academic year 2020 and the academic year 2021 will be merged so that we can have a longer recovery time for learning. All the contents planned for the academic year 2020 and 2021 will be treated in the classroom through our teachers, “he added.
Mixed school years will only be possible, according to him, with a full-time education, reinforced with electronic equipment.
It is part of this program to recover and reinforce the promotion of integral education to all our children in 2020 and in 2021. How will this be done? In schools where there is physical space for this extension of the classroom hours, when it is safe, it will be done ”, said the secretary, who also mentioned the purchase of almost half a million electronic equipment and tablets that, according to him, will be distributed to students. primary and secondary students from the municipal network.
Welcome students
The City Council also announced that it will open, in October, 14 thousand vacancies for social and emotional assistance to children, in the CCA (Centers for Children and Adolescents). According to Caetano, the UBS (Basic Health Units) will act as a gateway to this service.
“We are very concerned about the growing reports of child aggression, early pregnancy, a serious problem in the most vulnerable areas of São Paulo. Only the Ministry of Health has reports of 5,000 child victims of domestic violence,” he said.
The secretary also indicated that, in October, reception work will be reinforced, especially for early childhood (children from zero to six years old). According to him, 72 teams of health and education professionals will carry out home visits in the 10 most vulnerable districts of the city of São Paulo to identify “specific situations of vulnerability.” In October, these teams are expected to make 5,000 home visits.
Pressure for and against the return
Covas has been under pressure from different groups for the reopening of schools in the city. On the one hand, the public and private school teacher unions oppose the resumption of activities in 2020. The representatives of the private schools say they are ready to return.
Sinpro-SP (São Paulo Teachers Union), which represents teachers in private schools throughout the state, this week sent a material in which it defends the return of classroom activities only in 2021 to the City Council, the City Council and the municipal departments of Education and Health.
Sieeesp (Sindicato de Establishments Educativos del Estado de São Paulo), the employers’ union representing around 10,000 small and medium-sized private schools in the state of São Paulo, has argued that the schools can receive students again since July. The union even went to court to ask for the release of the school units in September, but the request was denied.
The administration of Governor João Doria (PSDB) allowed the opening of public and private schools in the state of São Paulo starting in September to carry out activities to reinforce and welcome students. Covas, however, decided not to follow the state’s decision. In late August, the mayor even admitted the possibility that classes would only return in 2021 in the capital.
Return to universities
The authorization to resume face-to-face activities in universities, according to Covas, is based on the results of the fifth phase of the serological survey of adults (over 18 years of age) of the municipality, also released today.
“Higher education is much more related to the survey of adults, not related to the survey of children. Various activities have already resumed their activities here in the city,” he said. “With the data we have, it no longer makes sense to continue prohibiting higher education in the city of São Paulo.”
“We have a protocol drawn up by the government of the state of São Paulo for the resumption of these higher education classes, respecting, of course, university autonomy, the understanding of each university, the proportion and number of students, social distance”, said.
Infant serological survey
The announcement made today was made with the disclosure of the third stage of a serological survey with students in the capital. For the first time, not only students from the municipal school system were evaluated, but also students from state and private schools in the city of São Paulo.
The data released today showed that the contagion rate of the new coronavirus among students in the municipal network is double that of students in the private network. According to the tests, 18.4% of the students of the municipal school system presented antibodies to Sars-Cov-2, which indicates that they have already had contact with the virus, while, in the private network, the rate drops to 9 , 7%.
The results, according to the City Council, proved to be stable in relation to the data found in the first two serological surveys. The first phase of the survey had indicated that 16.1% of the students had antibodies against the new coronavirus and, therefore, were infected with covid-19. In the second, the rate increased to 18.3%.
The first two surveys also indicated a high proportion of asymptomatic patients: 64.4% in the first phase and 69.5% in the second.
The results of this third stage showed that the rate of asymptomatic infected children was 66%. Taking into account only private school students, the percentage is even higher, 70.3%.
Covas used the results of the first two phases of the serosurvey as an argument for the decision not to allow the partial reopening in September. This is because, in the City Council’s assessment, the data pointed to a potential for the silent spread of the coronavirus between school, family and community.
