[ad_1]
Upon their return to the new academic year, which begins between September 14 and 17, the vast majority of students will sit side by side because a high percentage of public and private schools have neither the space nor the conditions for students are at least one meter apart. This is a reality confirmed not only by the main union structures, but also by the two associations of school directors of the “Correio da Manhã”.
“To comply with the guidance of the General Directorate of Health (DGS) and given the average size of classrooms in our country, we would not have more than 12 to 13 students per classroom,” explained the president of the National Association of School Directors. Manuel Pereira to the same newspaper. The same position is shared by Filinto Lima, president of the National Association of Directors of Public Schools.
“Schools do not commit any illegality because the Ministry of Education has indicated that distance is what is possible,” he says. This is at a time when the minimum distance recommended by the DGS to combat and prevent possible cases of contagion is one meter. When there are full rooms, there is a risk not only of infecting students, but also teachers who belong to risk groups.
But Filinto Lima also criticizes the fact that it is not possible to adopt a teleworking regime for all these teachers, and admits a scenario in which “teachers may be absent” if they are discharged.
If a positive case of COVID-19 infection is confirmed in schools, the government and DGS guarantee that they will not close. The exceptions, of course, will relate to borderline situations. In such cases, the closure of schools should only be “considered in high-risk situations in the establishment or in the community”, read in the manual published by the DGS to combat COVID-19 in the new school year in case of contagion or suspected contagion. The decision to close schools must involve local, regional and national health authorities.
But the 44-page manual further states that, even if a school is not closed, it can be determined “the closure of one or more areas of the school” or “one or more classes” to avoid sequential contagion and chains of transmission. active. . For this reason, the isolation of positive cases or infections are also measures provided by the health entity.
“It is important to define who is calling whom, who is speaking to whom, what type of action is going to be carried out because, as has been said, the intervention is intended to be directed and focused, and not expanded to the entire school. , to disturb the academic year as little as possible ”, defended Graça Freitas.
But for DGS, only two cases of COVID-19 infection with direct connection are enough to consider an outbreak scenario. In suspicious cases, the document says that the school must activate the planned contingency plan and immediately contact the person responsible for implementing the contingency plan in each school. The objective is to expedite the application of all measures, for greater efficiency in the fight against the new coronavirus.
