SAN JUAN.- Puerto Rico schools resumed classes in person on Wednesday in the midst of the covid-19 pandemic with 170 centers preliminarily certified to receive students and the students’ desire to return to the routine after close a year away from the classroom.
The alarms sounded again in the homes of the students, who today resumed the format of face-to-face classes in part of the 170 preliminary certified schools -which already allows students to receive-, of which 79 are private and 91 are public.
The schools that eventually opened did so only for grades K-3, the Special Education Program, and the fourth year of high school.
Preliminary certification already allows students to go to schools, a long-awaited desire by the governor of Puerto Rico, Pedro Pierluisi, who since taking office in January has not stopped repeating that it was necessary for students to resume classes for its good and as it is done in much of the world.
Pierluisi, who today traveled to the island municipality of Vieques to participate in an event related to the vaccination process, said that he expects 100 percent of the students to be in class by August, when immunity is expected to be achieved. herd and coinciding with the start of the school year in Puerto Rico.
RESPONSE TO THE IMPAIRMENT OF SOME SCHOOLS
The governor also announced that there will be a response to the deterioration situation of some schools, ending the problem of centers built with the so-called short column design or before the 1987 codes.
The designated Secretary of Education, Elba Aponte, defined as “indescribable” the partial return today of the students to the schools of the island.
The official, as a way to support the return to classes, visited the Jesús T. Piñero school, in the municipality of Caguas, and the Eugenio María de Hostos, in Cayey.
Aponte stressed feeling “extremely excited”, a year after the declaration of quarantine by the covid-19 that forced to resort to virtual education.
Despite the number of schools that obtained the certification, not all of them were able to receive students, since some were located in the municipality such as Hatillo, Camuy and Orocovis, classified as having a high potential for transmission of coronavirus, for which the Department of Health established that virtual education would be maintained.
NECESSARY TRANSITION PROCESS
“Today this process of transition and adaptation so necessary for the integral development of childhood is marked,” said the designated Secretary of Education.
He said that in the next two weeks there will be an analysis of the achievements made by the schools and the deficiencies to establish if it could be authorized to receive more grades.
“This has been done in a staggered fashion. We will be monitoring to expand what the schools are and be ready for August, because we know that the covid-19 will continue, “said the official.
He said that he has authorized the principals of the 856 schools, even when they are not identified as suitable for the reopening of face-to-face classes, to begin calling their teachers to facilitate the return to normality.