The results of the survey carried out by Acción Empresarial por la Educación (Educa) to know the opinion of parents regarding online education during the pandemic and which reflects that 59.53% support that their children return to classes partially in person, would be a a reflection of what most of the actors in the educational system aspire to.
Members of the Educación Digna social movement, health personnel and the Dominican Association of Professors (ADP) are in favor of teaching in person. However, the when and how put a brake on everyone’s wishes and make them differ.
On Wednesday, the National Education Council approved, according to the Minister of Education, Roberto Furcal, the preliminary protocol for the gradual, voluntary, safe return to the classroom, which would have had the consent of the technical board, made up of the ministries of Education and Public Health.
The decision responds to the claims of middle and upper class parents’ organizations that have protested in demand of this measure. But the Educa study, which concentrates 50% of those surveyed in the provinces of Santiago, Santo Domingo and the National District, indicates that the greatest preference for partial return to the classroom occurs in the population with the lowest economic resources (quintile 1 ), with 69%, compared to 52% of those with the greatest resources (quintile 5).
It also indicates that the lower the educational level of the mother, the higher the percentage of those who want to be present. So 85.71% of those who have no educational level prefer a return to the classroom, followed by 69.05% of those who have completed less than the 8th year of basic.
Among mothers with university degrees and masters degrees, the percentages are 56.52% and 60.00% respectively. By gender, 57.2% were in favor among mothers or guardians, and it rose to 61.78% among parents or guardians.
One of the reasons that, according to the study, push this preference would be in the quality of distance learning. The survey, applied by telephone to a sample of 386 people, indicates that 51.04% of parents believe that their children learn less now than before the pandemic, and 4.66% believe that they do not learn anything.
Contrary, the 16% believed that now, through the different modalities of distance education, more is learned, and another 26.17 who believe that the same is learned. In these two groups, 53.23% and 52.48%, respectively, prefer that the classes continue at a distance, while among those who perceive that children learn less, their inclination towards educational presence is 67%.
However, the decision of how long to continue virtual and return to the classroom is subject to the time it takes to create the appropriate conditions in a country where, according to the ADP, many public schools do not even have availability of water for washing hands as required by the health protocol for the management of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A draft of the resolution that contains what was approved by the National Council of Education, of which DL obtained copies, does not specify when face-to-face teaching could begin. It does indicate that the Ministries of Education and Public Health must present for next week “a schedule for the staggered return to classrooms, which will take into account the vaccination process that is being carried out.”
According to Minister Roberto Furcal, the return to the classroom would be in this school year, but some sectors consider that this will depend on creating the physical and logistical conditions to achieve the health security required in each campus.
The former Minister of Public Health, Rafael Sánchez Cárdenas, understands that attendance in schools must be organized by defining a protocol that carries out the design, surveillance and joint monitoring of the Ministries of Public Health and Education.
Said protocol must include the maintenance of at least 1.5 meters of the distance between students, general hygiene measures, such as the use of a mask and frequent hand washing, avoiding crowds and with a capacity of no more than 50% of the students in each batch educational.
Teachers will also have to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and carry out virus detection tests before starting classes, says Sánchez Cárdenas who, prior to his tenure as Minister of Health, was an official of the Ministry of Higher Education for several years .
Regarding the general contagion levels, which according to the Educa study only affected 13.73% of the households surveyed, the former minister understands that the ideal to move to educational presence would be a positivity of less than 15%.
The epidemiological bulletin issued by the Ministry of Public Health shows an accumulated positivity for the last four weeks of 13.33%. To date, the positivity of the day is 17.34%, with 746 positive cases in a total of 4,302 samples performed. Deaths from COVID-19 totaled nine this Thursday.
However, by province, there are at least 13 that present less than 10% positivity, although large cities such as Santo Domingo, Santiago and the National District are above 15%.
María Teresa Cabrera, activist of the Green March movement and member of the ADP, joins Sánchez Cárdenas’ proposal that a sanitary protocol must be defined and ensured prior to the start of classes in the classroom and improve the conditions of the schools . He understands that, probably, until the beginning of the next school year (2021-2022), a full and safe return of students to the classroom cannot be expected.
“What has been agreed in the Council is to lift the conditions and from there accelerate the vaccination process of teachers, who would be those who are at risk. Especially those with health conditions ”, says the educator.
He says that like everyone else, teachers dream that the pandemic situation can be overcome, “because there is no doubt that there is a strong impact on education. There are many children, adolescents, who have been left out ”.
The same is the opinion of Mario Bergés, director of Educación Digna, who considers that many children have not been able to catch up with the contents. “Imagine, if when it was face-to-face there was difficulty, more so now, when not everyone has access to the content,” he questions.
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Despite the fact that the ADP is part of the National Education Council and participated in the meeting in which the gradual, safe and voluntary return to the classroom was approved, its president Xiomara Guante assures that it was not determined that classes would begin this year school.
This Thursday, the leader said: “We are not going to start face-to-face classes because some sector is interested in that.” He accused the business sector of pressuring, manipulating and blackmailing to achieve the purpose of face-to-face classes and warned that it will “wash its hands” when a catastrophe occurs, which it believes could occur when the number of infections caused by COVID-19 and there are no beds or intensive care units available.
Darwin Caraballo, Educa’s executive director, said that what was approved in the Council was declared by Minister Furcal and was recorded. “She (Xiomara Guante) has every right to think like she does. But what was said is said and recorded ”, he affirmed.
He recommended Xiomara Guante to document what science says because, in his opinion, the conditions are given in most of the country’s educational centers.
Also, the Dominican Initiative for Quality Education (IDEC), which represents more than 25 institutions, considers that there are conditions to resume face-to-face classes in many educational centers that meet the requirements to do so.
The general coordinator of IDEC, Laura Abreu, favors that through the established protocols and a pilot plan, the conditions are created to resume face-to-face teaching as soon as possible.
However, the Narciso González Magisterial Space reflected on the need not to put business before health and life, considering that there are still no conditions in the country to return to the classroom in person.
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