In an interview on Cadena Ser, the Minister of Education, Carmen Pomar, rules out the option of hiring more teachers en masse to reduce the number of students in the classes of schools and institutes.
Explain that the reason for that refusal is very simple; “Even if we wanted to and could double the groups and classrooms, we would not have enough space to go to ratios of 15 studentsIt would be unfeasible because we would not have where to physically place these students ”.
“We chose to be realistic”, affirms the councilor, “what must be communicated to the educational communities is what is possible and operative.” On this issue, it is important to note that the ratios in primary have been adjusted with those 240 teachers hired by seniors and that, right now, the situation in secondary education is being analyzed to close the number of teachers that are needed at that educational level.
According to Carmen Pomar, her department is also waiting for the funds for education that the central government is going to transfer to the autonomous communities to arrive and to know what purpose they will have. They are funds that “never arrive.”
Asked about the fact that there will not be a meter of distance between desks, the regional manager explains that the WHO recommendation is that there be a meter of distance “between head and head” and that this is the measure that the Xunta will take. The meter and a half of distance, remember, is for when you are not going to use a mask, something that the Galician government rules out. Carmen Pomar recalls that experts recommend its use from 6 years of age and that she believes that it is a measure that students can take, “The children are already used to using it and doing it in the classroom is not going to be as uncomfortable as it seemed to us ”.
PROTOCOL OPEN TO CHANGES
The Minister of Education anticipates in the Being that on Wednesday a new meeting of the clinical committee that advises the Xunta will take place. After that meeting, those measures that improve it will be added to the protocol presented in mid-July, taking into account that the document “It will be modified whenever the health authorities require it.”
The aspects that can be included from Wednesday have to do with the use of the mask from 6 years, with pending decisions for early childhood education and with the outbreak management. In this sense the number of students or classrooms that will be quarantined will be determined when an outbreak is registered in a health center and how will be the communication with the reference health center that each educational center will have.
The conselleira anticipates that there will be 40,000 serological tests available to Galician teachers and that in the first days of September 4,000 teachers will be trained in health matters to face the start of the school year.
Carmen Pomar denies improvisation before the beginning of the course and lack of consensus with the educational community. He wields the 18 meetings he has held with the regional board of directors of centers and explains that the last two were devoted to reviewing a protocol that many educational centers in the community have already internalized and applied. It also announces that in a few days, schools will be provided with a simpler guide, with quick questions and answers, which can quickly help resolve any doubts that may arise.
According to Carmen Pomar, Galicia is also better prepared for telematic teaching.
Regarding the concern of the families this year, he understands that these feelings of uncertainty are normal, “I have a daughter in primary school and I am able to put myself in that place”, he affirms, and then transmits a message of tranquility and guarantees the work without rest of his department so that everything goes well.
The Ministry of Education recognizes that “We are not safe from contagion anywhere” But he believes that the school environment is an environment in which the rules and guidelines are quickly internalized by the little ones.
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