Vaccine shortages and lack of infrastructure hamper return to school in Latin America | Society

Schools without water, poorly ventilated or very small classrooms to guarantee the social distancing required by the pandemic; underpaid and exhausted teachers; lack of vaccines and poor health systems; large expanses of jungle or mountains without internet access. The list of back-to-school challenges in Latin America is immense. In its April regional report, Unicef, the United Nations office for children, said as of March 31, only eight countries had their schools fully open (Costa Rica, Nicaragua and six Caribbean islands), 10 countries had closed them (including Mexico, Venezuela and Peru) and 18 other countries kept them partially open (Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Bolivia, Paraguay and Ecuador, among others).

“Three in five children who lost a school year around the world during the pandemic live in Latin America and the Caribbean,” UNICEF warned. Five months later, the region is trying to reverse this reality, albeit with great differences between countries. for children, he said that as of March 31, only eight countries had their schools fully open (Costa Rica, Nicaragua and six Caribbean islands), 10 countries had closed them (including Mexico, Venezuela and Peru) and 18 other countries kept them partially open (Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Bolivia, Paraguay and Ecuador, among others). “Three in five children who lost a school year around the world during the pandemic live in Latin America and the Caribbean,” UNICEF warned. Five months later, the region is trying to reverse this reality, but with big differences between countries.

Delays in the Andean region

Venezuela is the country that has kept its schools closed the longest and the one that has delayed reopening the longest, in a region that also includes Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. Nicolás Maduro’s government closed classrooms on March 13, 2020, and just over a month after the start of a new cycle, seven million students are in limbo. The president ordered the return to face-to-face classes from October, a promise that came up against a harsh health reality: only 4% of the population received two doses of the covid-19 vaccine. In addition, there is a lack of teachers.

Union leader Raquel Figueroa warns that 100,000 teachers have emigrated from the country or left the profession in the past five years, expelled by the political and economic crisis. “If there is a 40% deficit of teachers, how are they going to open more teams to reduce the number of students per course, for example,” says Figueroa. A teacher in Venezuela charges the equivalent of eight euros.

The Colombian government, meanwhile, announced this month the return of face-to-face classes to the public system, after a year and a half of suspension. The decision was not well received by the unions, who called for a protest. Today, despite the directive, more than half of public schools are still closed, according to ministry calculations. The system also suffers from a serious infrastructure deficit, especially in rural areas. The reality is different in Bogotá, where progress has been made since January towards a gradual reopening of schools: more than 99% of public schools in the capital have already returned to class. Similar infrastructure problems affect Peru.

According to official data, there are only in the metropolis of Lima more than 14,600 schools that are not able to guarantee care measures against covid-19 or are located in neighborhoods with high transmission of the virus. virus. Peru has allocated some $ 123 million this year to public schools to set up portable sinks where toilets are lacking, “but many do not have direct access to water,” says José Carlos Vera, director of decentralized management of the Ministry of Education. To compensate for the lack of courses, Vera indicates that the Ministry created the program I learn in community, with 185 places for recreational, sports and social activities. The full return to classrooms will in no case be before the end of the year, when the government hopes to have vaccinated the 675,022 teachers in the public system. To date, only 50% of teachers have received the vaccine. Neighboring Ecuador is also moving towards a presence since June, for now on a voluntary basis.

At the start of the school year, the government of conservative Guillermo Lasso ordered that primary and secondary schools can voluntarily return to class if they followed the protocols of care. The project started with 1,301 public and private primary and secondary schools. The majority, over 1,000, were public facilities and in rural areas, where Internet access is more limited. “Parents who decide not to send their children to school will continue their studies at home”, then announced the Ministry of Education. Almost three months later, there are 2,691 primary and secondary schools licensed to attend. Only 270,000 students, out of a total of 4.4 million, fully attend classrooms.

Brazil, speed

Brazil spent 13 months with closed classes. Finally, since the beginning of August, public schools have started to reopen in almost all the states; those who miss hope to do so in September. There is however no single rule for the return, in a huge country where the regions have a lot of autonomy. Some capitals, like Manaus (in the state of Amazonas), have completely returned to the presence, while others like Fortaleza (in Ceará) have a hybrid model, with students taking turns and part of the activities. from a distance. In any case, going to school is not yet compulsory for the pupils and several governors have chosen to establish maximum capacities to guarantee the distance between the pupils. In the country’s most populous city, São Paulo, 64% of students already participate in face-to-face classes, while 36% still participate in online activities.

Since the start of the pandemic, it is the poorest students who have had the least access to distance education in Brazil. Many have even dropped out of school because they don’t even have a cell phone or Internet access. Last year, 172,000 children aged 6 to 17 dropped out of school in the country, according to an estimate from a World Bank report. In private schools, on the other hand, the doors were opened last year in much of the country, after intense pressure from companies, who said they were better prepared to follow the health measures. In São Paulo, for example, they are allowed to operate at 100% capacity.

Mexico goes back to school

Mexico is one of the countries in the world that has kept classrooms closed the longest, around 17 months, and the government’s will is to open them now, this Monday, universally. All students and teachers are encouraged to do this from the youngest to the end of secondary school. The return to classrooms met with great reluctance on the part of teachers, some annoyed by the non-payment of their salary, and others because they do not believe that the schools have sufficient sanitary conditions to return to normal. Many centers in Mexico don’t even have running water and during the pandemic shutdown they were looted.

Families are also not convinced by the presence of children in the classes. They fear contagion among their own from school, even though the truth is that millions of children are on the streets, in stores, anywhere, because the whole economy is open. An investigation by an association with the eloquent name, AbremiEscuela, certified 97 infections in 23,108 schools open for more than a month at that time in different states. “Life comes first,” they say in union coordinator CNTE, whose associate teachers have rejected the idea of ​​going back to class and prefer to continue teaching online. The teachers have already received their vaccine, although it is the Chinese CanSino, which has raised some suspicion about their protection. Some teachers chose to add another dose from another lab.

The Southern Cone, to the rhythm of vaccines

Argentina, Uruguay and Chile are moving, with restrictions, towards the standardization of education. The first will return to “full presence” on September 1, after a year and a half of exceptional measures due to the covid-19 pandemic. The 2020 school year has been worked out, with the exception of the first two weeks, virtually, with the closure of classrooms. In 2021, teachers were included among the priority staff to be vaccinated and each province organized the schedule for returning to face-to-face attendance. First, with the classes divided into bubbles spread over the school timetable. From next week, with the same number of students as before the pandemic, but maintaining traditional prevention measures.

Uruguay, meanwhile, is the South American country that has closed schools the fewest days. In June 2020, as much of the continent struggled to stop the expansion of the coronavirus and prevent the collapse of its hospital systems, the number of cases in that country was very low and the executive led by Luis Lacalle Pou a announced the return of classes. face to face. It was a single case and the decision stood for the rest of the year, but the picture changed in the early months of 2021, when the country hit its peak of infections. At the end of March, the government decided to close all schools and the return was phased. The return was accompanied by the announcement that young people between the ages of 12 and 18 would be included in the vaccination campaign. Chile is another country with high vaccination rates.

The country has reopened 74% of schools, according to data from the Ministry of Education. The figure coincides with the best health situation of the entire pandemic and mass vaccination. While the positivity is 1.1%, 84.4% of the target population (15,200,000 people) have completed their vaccination program against covid-19. In all cases, the return to class has largely depended on the school management system, with a higher percentage among private schools and less among public and concerted schools.

In the municipality of Santiago, the center of the city where many of the most emblematic private companies are located, none of the 44 municipalities have opened. In the south of the city, Patricia Herrera, for example, takes care of her grandchildren aged 7 and 8. “They have not set foot in school since the first days of March 2020, at the start of the pandemic,” he says by phone from the town of La Cisterna. They go to an establishment in La Pintana, a popular district of the capital, which has not opened for these 16 months. “The courses end in December, I don’t think they will be reinstated before 2022,” he laments.

With texts by Carmen Morán Breña (Mexico); Mar Centenera (Buenos Aires); Beatriz Juca (São Paulo); Santiago torrado (Bogota); Singer Florantonia (Caracas); Jacqueline Fowks (Lima); Sara Spain (Quito); Federico Rivas Molina (Buenos Aires).

Subscribe here to the EL PAÍS América newsletter and receive all the informative keys of the current situation in the region.