“Substantial changes”. One week before the start of classes, the Province changes the protocol for schools

Less than a week before the start of face-to-face classes in the province, the Buenos Aires Directorate General for Culture and Education updated the return to class protocol. The new regulations, published in a press release yesterday, have forced many schools to adjust their students’ school year patterns against the clock and keep parents up to date with current events, for whom school routine is a determining factor. their weekly organization. .

“The change forces us to rethink schedules and bubbles. We need to make substantial changes to the proposal, ”the principals of a private school in the northern suburbs communicated in an email to the families of their students.

Unlike the original back-to-class protocol, released in October 2020 under the name “Jurisdictional plan of the province of Buenos Aires for a safe return to classrooms”, updating the document does not determine a fixed number of students per educational bubble, but state that the size of the groups will depend on the size of the classroom spaces and compliance with mandatory social distancing: 1.5 meters between the students and 2 meters between them and their teachers. And the main thing: to confirm that days should be simple, four hours, and if a school is not yet able to guarantee the presence of its students – due to infrastructure problems or due to the epidemiological assessment of the health authority – it adopts another method .

“We were waiting for this document. We needed to know the details of the return protocol as soon as possible, ”he said. THE NATION Jerónimo Cernadas, managing director and legal representative of College of pilgrims, with offices in San Isidro and Pacheco. For him, one of the most decisive points of the new document is the establishment of a maximum of four hours of lessons per day, the same as those recommended last week by the Federal Council of Education. “Even before reading the statement, we had planned that students in grades five to three, who have less autonomy than older children to take virtual lessons, would go to school eight hours a day, as always. . Now we know that will not be possible, ”he added.

Also updating the protocol reformulates the three models of authorized schooling: model face to face (the pupils go to school every day, half in the morning and the other half in the afternoon); mixed or mixed model (students go to school every two weeks, at intervals) and non-face-to-face model.

According to the spokespersons of the provincial education authority, each school will define the model to follow according to its infrastructure and human resources; if you need, you can combine them. According to the sources consulted, 16,000 compulsory education establishments of the province should not submit its protocol for approval. However, the Buenos Aires Directorate General for Culture and Education will be responsible for verifying that the rules established in all schools are respected.

For the school principals consulted, the new way of defining educational bubbles – depending on the available space and social distance – is welcome. According to the previous protocol, the groups had to be smaller than 15 people, which for some, especially those who run schools with larger students, was a problem. “This system is more consistent. We have large classrooms and, following the rules of social distancing, we can form groups of more than 15 students, ”he said. Teresa De Stefano, Director of Community Relations at Northlands School, Olivos and Nordelta. The same think Andrés Pallaro, legal representative of Colegio Internacional del Sur, in Berazategui, which plans to use common areas, such as the gym and the dining room, to accommodate groups of more than 15 students.

“Since we have some 32 student courses, the previous cap of 15 students per bubble was a problem. Now we can form groups of 16, ”he said. Lucía Monsegur, legal representative of the Michael Ham school, with offices in Vicente López and Nordelta. This institution has decided to set up a system of return to presence which combines the three models proposed by the educational authority. It will include four hours of lessons per day and synchronous and asynchronous lessons on the other hand. There will also be non-face-to-face classes for students who suffer from at-risk illnesses, live with relatives with high-risk illnesses or are in close contact with the coronavirus.

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