By ensuring that approximately 172 schools with “potential to reopen” have been identified in the first phase of the return to face-to-face classes, the designated Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Elba Aponte Santos, pointed out that the agency will guarantee the effectiveness of the health protocols at a time when the country has not yet experienced a substantial reduction in Covid-19 positivity rates.
Aponte Santos echoed statements made earlier by Interior Minister Noelia García to the effect that the date for the reopening of schools is not “written in stone”, but acknowledged that Wednesday March 3 would be an alternative.
For example, it could be March 3. We have to go to the line we have drawn in early March. Should we postpone it due to an inconvenience, we will notify you. Today we are here and I hope nothing happens, but if something happens we will have to make adjustments, ”said Aponte Santos at a press conference after attending the weekly executive cabinet meeting.
To compile the list of schools that could reopen in March, Aponte Santos indicated that checklists had been drawn up with the characteristics that they must meet.
“We have two checklists, one for infrastructure and conditioning, which is marked if the bathrooms are adequate, if they have cleaning materials, if they have the Covid protocol, if there is no infrastructure risk in the rooms. […] In terms of the Covid protocol, according to the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) guidelines, if they have thermometers, nurses, cleaning supplies, janitors, masks available to provide, if they have gloves. Let them master the tracking program, ”noted the designated secretary.
The tracking program within the school system will be led by epidemiologists Encijar Hassan, Fabiola Cruz and demographer Wilmarí de Jesús.
While the Ministry of Education is not currently considering making public the list of schools it is considering reopening, Aponte Santos expressed his wish that the schools that are finally opening their classrooms be a ‘representative sample’ of Puerto’s geographic realities. Rico.
The Ministry of Education aims to “reopen at least one per municipality, but this may vary. In Culebra we have a school, they have already been vaccinated and when the school is ready, it will start. Maybe in Las Marías the risk or the Covid numbers are lower (so) we are going to move there. There are several aspects that we will take into account when making this determination, based on the recommendation that (the Ministry of) Public Health gives us, ”said the official.
The agency has 856 schools, of which up to a few weeks ago 53 were classified as unsuitable and 253 partially suitable due to their infrastructure conditions.
Aponte Santos emphasized that parents or guardians will not be forced to send their children to school, but indicated that, in the case of teachers, they have a responsibility, by collective agreement, to go to the schools as soon as they pass through the agency are summoned.
On February 5, the designated secretary announced that there will be a meeting to which all trade unions of the Department of Education will be invited.
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“In the conversation that we are going to have with the unions, we are going to discuss the date when some workers will call that this is a condition of employment,” he insisted.
At the press conference, designated Health Minister Carlos Mellado stated that “in two weeks” the plans and protocols to be followed by the schools reopening in March will be made public.
“There are some schools that are prepared, both public and private. We are evaluating the protocols in this, ”said Mellado.
Faced with criticism from organizations such as the Teachers Association, who have demanded that the government focus on a reopening for the semester beginning in August, Mellado hinted at the views of experts such as federal epidemiologist Anthony Fauci, the College of Surgeons of Puerto Rico and the American Pediatric Association, who have warned of the harm suffered by children who are not given the opportunity to receive personal education for an extended period of time.
In this sense, the designated secretary insisted that schools play a fundamental role for children in nutritional and psychological aspects.
By excluding school employees from the administrative order that the Covid-19 vaccine will only be administered to people over 65 for four weeks, Mellado and Aponte Santos assured that this phase could be completed on March 18. To date, 16,100 of the 55,000 teaching and non-teaching workers in public and private schools have received at least the first dose of the vaccine.
Of the 48,000 weekly doses that will be received starting next week, Mellado indicated that about 12,000 will be reserved for this population.