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A month after the closure of new schools and at a time when the numbers of the epidemic are giving way, a group of a hundred “citizens”, linked to the areas of health, science, higher education and education, ask the Government and to the President of the Republic to quickly determine the reopening of educational establishments, “safely and continuously, starting with the youngest.” Why school is an “essential asset” and it is possible to “reconcile the rights to health and education“, They argue. You can consult the full list of signatories HERE.
The Government has already assumed that the lack of definition will always begin with the schools and also argues that, contrary to what was determined in the past school year, the return to face-to-face education will be done first by the youngest, who are less autonomous and for whom the lack of direct contact with teachers is more damaging. However, he has not yet set any date – “it is premature to talk about this next fortnight of indefiniteness, particularly in the school environment,” declared the Minister of State and Presidency last weekend.
The letter’s subscribers believe, however, that It is possible and desirable that kindergartens and kindergartens will reopen at the beginning of March, gradually following and also at the beginning of next month the remaining levels of education, starting with the 1st and 2nd cycles of basic education. (1st to 6th year).
On the list of personalities who sign the letter are, for example, the president of the Portuguese Epidemiology Society, Elisabete Ramos, the infectious diseases specialist at the Hospital de São João Margarida Tavares, the pediatrician Paulo Oom, director of the Institute of Molecular Medicine , Maria Manuel Mota, economics professors such as Susana Peralta and Luís Aguiar Conraria, journalist Daniel Oliveira, the president of the National Confederation of Parents’ Associations, Jorge Ascensão, or Filinto Lima, director and president of the National Association of Directors and Associations public schools
The letter also defends that all children and young people who benefit from school social action, those designated by the child and youth protection commissions and those for whom the school considers that distance education is ineffective, may also return to the classroom. compared to education, as provided in the guidelines of the Ministry of Education for this school year.
The few who have attended (only 3,300 who schools deemed unable to study at home and another 2,300 who need therapy, according to the latest guardianship data) are often limited to “mere distance education at school,” recall subscribers.
The closure penalizes more those who have less conditions
It is also due to the lack of conditions of thousands of families and children for an effective home study and the penalty that distance education exerts on those who are already more disadvantaged that the urgency of returning to face-to-face classes is justified. Even more when last year, elementary school students went home on March 16 and did not return to classrooms, in one of the longest confinements recorded in the European Union.
“Studies in several countries, and the clinical experience of some of the signatories of this letter, have shown an increase in the psychological and psychiatric problems of children and young people associated with the closure and closure of schools (depression, anxiety, eating disorders, self-harm, etc.) “, he warns.
In the arguments presented, it is recognized that the closure of schools facilitates the reduction of contacts and the control of the epidemic. But that “is not essential” for this to happen. Just look at the experience of the first trimester, in which measures in schools and a “strict health protocol” prevented “numerous cases and clusters”- There were only 800 classes that had to close in the whole country in this period, they remember.
More security conditions
However, so that the epidemiological situation does not worsen as at the end of last year and the beginning of 2021, the subscribers of the open letter propose the application of several measures that will be added to the existing regulations on circulation and permanence in school.
For example, that the mask becomes mandatory after 6 years (currently it is only from 10 years) and that concentrations outside school are prohibited. Regular screenings should be conducted in the school community to detect asymptomatic or presymptomatic infections and allow at-risk teachers to stay home to teach or be replaced. It is also recommended to strengthen public transport and further delay the entry and exit times. And the inclusion of teachers and staff in phase 1 of the vaccination plan, having to be vaccinated once the protection of health personnel, the elderly and risk groups has ended.
The signatories of the letter believe that all these measures “are within the reach of the Government and that their cost is infinitely lower than profitability in the short, medium and, mainly, long term.
