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“The Mineduc has made it clear that its main concern is not in the best interests of children and adolescents, but in the installation and continuity of the economic agenda of its Government.” This statement is part of the letter that yesterday, Monday, was delivered by the president of the Chamber’s Education Commission and the leader of the Teachers College, to Minister Raúl Figueroa, where they demand that any plan to return to classrooms be suspended and work at the close of the school year.
In the letter, they also request that “in the face of an eventual return in person by 2021”, pedagogical and socio-emotional policies be drawn up that consider “permanently the various actors that make up the educational communities.” All this, they argued, taking into account that there are 44,528 positive people for covid-19 who are between 0 and 19 years old, according to the epidemiological report of September 16.
“There is no condition whatsoever for the communities to return to face-to-face classes. The Mineduc has been trying for months to promote a picture of normality that is not related to what the country is experiencing,” said deputy Juan Santana (PS), emphasizing that he must advance in a process of closing the school year, in order to end the “uncertainty” that, in his opinion, thousands of families live.
At the insistence, from the Mineduc they reproached that it is intended to prohibit a return to school at the national level, since there are communes that would be in conditions for not presenting cases of coronavirus. “It is not understood why there are actors who continue to falsely insist that the Ministry is forcing the return. We have insistently said that this return is voluntary, both for supporters and for the proxies, in addition to being safe and gradual,” said the Undersecretary of Education , Jorge Poblete, underlining that communities are given the option of returning, but provided that the requirements are met.
In the same vein, the deputy Luis Pardo (RN) insisted that the model, in any case, gives the possibility for those who do not want to return, to continue with distance classes. “There is no justification for a general rule to prohibit the return to classes, in circumstances that we have very different realities between communes,” he said.
According to the Government’s plan, establishments in communes in phase 4 and 5 are authorized to open, while those in communes in step 3 require a specific authorization from the Seremi de Salud. But so far, the process has been carried out with caution, since there are only 42 educational establishments (schools and gardens) that have decided to return to the face-to-face modality, quite little considering that to date there are 55 communes that are in phase 4 and 192 in phase 3.
Return
According to the exempt resolution 635 issued on August 7 by the Ministry of Education, the Regional Education Seremis have the power to decide on the return to face-to-face classes, after analyzing compliance with the protocols ordered by Health. This translates, in the opinion of Juan Santana and Mario Aguilar, “in abandoning the application of sanitary and epidemiological criteria in decision-making”.
However, for Eugenio Severin, executive director of “Your Class, Your Country” and international consultant for UNESCO and IDB, it is correct “to decentralize decisions, because the situation in the different regions is diverse”. Anyway, he said that two conditions must be met:
-Comply with objective context aspects: controlled contagion rate, traceability and availability of health facilities. It must be the responsibility of the health system.
-Have clear protocols and operating conditions for schools, defined by Health and Education. The schools must assume them, accept them and compromise their fulfillment. Once the adaptations have been made, each establishment must ask the Secretary of Education for authorization to return.
Strengthen dialogue
As Alejandra Arratia, executive director of Education 2020, stated, to settle this dispute, the main thing is to strengthen the dialogue. “Having the actors of the educational community talking is key, seeking how to address the challenge in the best way, and understanding that the role of schools is fundamental for the training of children,” she commented.
Along with this, he reiterated that as long as the sanitary conditions are not there, it must also be understood that there cannot be a safe face-to-face return. “We invite you to promote trust, take care of dialogue and advance in a conversation that is a recognition of the challenge, supporting decisions related to the different territories of the country,” he stressed.
In any case, for Arratia, above all, the accent should be placed on how the right to education talks, with the right to health and physical integrity, “since they are fundamental rights that we must be able to reconcile at this very moment. complex”.
End of the school year?
Even when it is requested to establish a closing plan for the school year that guarantees the consideration of the reality of each campus, the Mineduc already has tools that allow the establishments to make adjustments. Based on portfolio data, schools can adjust their curriculum and reduce the number of subjects leading to the final average, requiring at least 1 grade.
In addition, they commented, alternative routes have been given to measure students: formatively evaluate until the end of the year and transform to grades according to equivalence tables; or combine formative and summative assessments.
For the portfolio, in any case, the priority focus of the remaining months should be on those students with whom contact has been lost.
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