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“Our priority is to go back to school and I want to say it unequivocally: schools are safe places,” said the Minister of Education this Wednesday, February 17, in the parliamentary committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sports.
At the hearing requested by PSD, CDS and the Os Verdes Ecological Party (PEV), Tiago Brandão Rodrigues once again defended the need to return quickly to school, he said that the Rt (transmission index) began to have its turning point even before closing. He repeated the argument about the difficulty in buying computers and revealed data on tests carried out in schools.
In the two days prior to the school disruption, 3,000 high school students and school employees located in extreme risk counties were screened (more than 960 cases per 100,000 residents in the past 14 days), with only 25 cases of contagion detected by SARS Cov-2.
During the two weeks of school break, 12,800 antigen tests were performed on teachers and non-teachers in reference schools for reception, and only 25 positive cases were registered, which is equivalent to approximately 0.2%.
The audience saw moments of tension between Minister Tiago Brandão Rodrigues and PSD deputies Luís Leite Ramos and CDS, Ana Rita Bessa, two of the three applicants – the other was the Ecological Party, Los Verdes -, as when Tiago Brandão Rodrigues affirmed : “It is painful to see PSD focus on incidents without ever suggesting a solution.”
PSD and CDS accused the Ministry of Education of little or nothing, presenting few solutions to solve the problems and insisted on the issue of computers. The minister reiterated that the Government has already distributed 100,000, 335,000 were bought and 15,000, bought on occasion, are reaching schools this week. He clarified to the PSD that the contracts are effective “on the date of the award and not of their signature” and re-enacted the argument of pressure in the world market.
“It is true that we are in a state of emergency, but it is true that we are not outside the law. There are rules, there are procedures in the contracts, there are laws, there are commitments ”, he emphasized.
The PS deputy, Porfírio Silva requested an update on the training plan for teachers in the digital area, which is underway. The minister has already trained some teachers and a set of actions will be launched. It materialized. “An opening announcement was launched for the presentation of applications and, on the other hand, dozens of actions were carried out by the General Directorate of Education aimed at digital skills, in which more than 60 thousand teachers participated.”
Joana Mortágua, from the Bloco de Esquerda, focused her intervention on the growth of inequalities, and Ana Mesquita, from the PCP, on the difficulties of families. In the end, the Secretary of State for Education, Inês Ramires, ended up responding indirectly, revealing that, between January 25 and February 12, about 441 thousand meals were served by the Ministry of Education and local authorities. “Last year there was a daily average of 5,500 meals and now we have an average of more than 37,000 meals served daily. This is an exponential increase, “he said, adding:” We had a week of classroom teaching, we are trying to understand where the needs are and meet them. “
The concern of the ENP refers to “professionals who cannot benefit from any measure of support and monitoring of children under 12 years of age, as well as their spouses.”
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