From this Monday the mandatory for educational activities in person, although with certain specifications of the school system and school levels.
The national Emergency Operations Committee (COE) defined that for the Sierra-Amazon regime, that he February 7th 2022 begins the second half of the 2021-2022 school year, there will be at all epidemiological traffic lights for COVID-19 (red, yellow and green) face-to-face attendance without capacity restriction of all the students of baccalaureate and upper basic in the educational institutions that offer it.
That provision includes students between first grade of basic general education and third course baccalaureate enrolled in single-teacher, two-teacher or multi-teacher educational institutions and in rural educational institutions.
According to Ministry of Education, the upper basic corresponds to eighth, ninth and tenth grade, that is, students from 12 to 14 years old. The first of basic general education is for students of 5 years of age and the baccalaureate that goes from 15 to 17 years.
While the educational institution must report to the corresponding district the cases of students with catastrophic or aggravating illnesses and design an individual plan, according to your condition.
162 campuses with infrastructure damage will not receive students in face-to-face classes; Ministry will implement contingency plan
According Andres Chiriboga, vice Minister Educational Management of the Ministry of Education, it has not been established a compulsory general return for all levels, but Yes that already must not exist No kind of limitation for the return in high school and upper basic, that is, eighth, ninth, tenth and the three years of high school.
“If the general rule is that students, young people, are already vaccinated for the most part; they have already shown that the infection rate has dropped significantly; that the contagion in (…) students was not serious in any way in the case of the omicron strain (…), these students have to come backHe said in a radio interview. Municipal.
He justified that the measure be applied in high school and upper basicsince he argued that the learning process has to be accelerated because they will go to the higher education and after two years of pandemic in their homes, they would not have been able to receive adequate leveling, which affects their development.
These are the capacity allowed in the new epidemiological scenario in Ecuador
Of the 16,000 educational institutions that there is at the national level, more than 11,000 have returned to the classrooms, but they are mostly from rural areas, he added, so now it is sought that in urbanity return occurs, because there are fewer entities but more students.
In Ecuador there is 4.3 million students in fiscal, fiscomisional, municipal and private establishments, but only 33%, that is, around 1,420,000 attend in person.
The face-to-face return It will also depend on whether the physical infrastructure allows it.
While in the Coast-Galapagos regime, Chiriboga added, Willingness will be maintained when there are six weeks left in the 2021-2022 school year.
Physician Recommendations and Concerns
For Alberto Narvaez, doctor and Ph. D. in disease control, there must be several conditions to return to face-to-face classes.
One of those conditions is that students are vaccinated with two doses and with booster doses teachers, as well as students with risk factors (chronic diseases, obesity or overweight).
What’s more, classroom ventilation until CO2 concentrations are less than 800 ppm (parts per million). It is recommended to buy CO2 monitors.
If adequate ventilation is not possible, he said, buy air purifiers with filters that meet filtration standards.
Another condition is that of live in a canton with less than one case of coronavirus per 100,000 inhabitants.
Dispose of soap and water or alcohol gel for hand washing or disinfection, at least four times a day.
He too use of KN95, N95 masks or similar or double mask, a surgical mask attached to the face and a homemade three-layer mask.
Training for teachers and students to identify people suspected or likely to have COVID-19 with whom they have had close contact and isolate themselves until an antigen or PCR test sample is taken.
Dispose of antigen tests in educational units.
“Every teacher and student over the age of 12 must pass an online or face-to-face course on prevention, identification of cases, monitoring of warning signs of death or aggravation,” said Narváez.
Catherine Yepez, health worker, medical and epidemiologist, sees the return to the classroom as a mental health issue due to the confinement caused by COVID-19, of violence prevention and sexual abuse, for the learning process of the students, for the lack of internet access in some areas or to computers in families.
However, for Yepez There are other risks such as floods that cause risk of leptospirosis on the coast, dengue being rainy season or influenza.
For the specialist, educational units are a biosecure space for COVID-19, but they must also have that security condition for all the diseases to which they are exposed daily.
He added that the return must go hand in hand with communication so that adults maintain protective measures that allow not to put children at risk even in the simple fact of the journey between homes and educational institutions.
Source: Eluniverso
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