A total of 1,301 schools will receive students starting next Monday
(AFP via Getty Images)
After 14 months, Ecuador announced the return to classrooms for thousands of students starting Monday, June 7. María Brown Pérez, Minister of Education, announced that this staggered return will be voluntary and left open the possibility of continuing with distance learning.
“The return is voluntary and parents will have the option of deciding whether their children return in person or continue their studies from home, no establishment may force presence as the only study alternative”, He said during an online conversation to clarify the announcement of the schools reopening.
Likewise, Brown Pérez revealed that the lessons face-to-face will resume in 1,301 schools who presented their Institutional Plans for Educational Continuity-PICE, which were approved by the Ministry of Education. Among the schools that will receive their students from next Monday are 37 universities.
As part of the safe return to the classroom, Brown Pérez indicated that more than 183,000 education workers have been vaccinated in Ecuador, with 6,000 of them fully protected after receiving the two doses of the inoculations.
The announcement came a few days after the Unicef will launch a call to the president Guillermo Lasso to order a return to schools. “[La prioridad es] to reopen schools and reactivate early childhood services, ”said Joaquín González, UNICEF representative in Ecuador, in an interview with the EFE agency and which Trade.
According to data from Unicef, the closure of schools affected 4.4 million students in the country. “Online education can never replace face-to-face education, what we ask is at least two or three days a week, and [de] two to three hours a day, ”added González.
Unicef assured that only in 2020, at least 90,000 children dropped out of their studies as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ecuador.
Read more: Mexico: SEP makes official the return to face-to-face classes in the country
Ecuador suspended face-to-face classes in March 2020, given the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, in its more than 15,000 educational institutions. So far, the country has registered more than 429,000 coronavirus infections and 15,213 deaths.
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