CAMAGÜEY.- More than 475 educational institutions remain closed in the province due to the increase in positive cases of COVID-19. The passage to the phase of limited autochthonous transmission of several municipalities has forced to restructure the teaching processes and to look for alternatives so as not to stop learning.
Although most students prepare from home, others, whose parents are indispensable in their work centers, attend open schools for this purpose. Of the 90 544 students that watched today the teleclasses, about 2,500 benefit from the modality that already proved its effectiveness in the previous stage.
ANOTHER NEED, NEW WAYS
The Granma elementary school is one of the twelve reception centers in the municipality of Camagüey. From Monday to Friday between 15 and 22 children arrive there. For these students, the teachers designed a group of activities that complement the classes of the Educational channel.
“We have enabled the premises for the visualization of the teleclasses according to the year and the settings of the new grid. Each grade has a teacher in charge who assumes the preparation during that time and helps them if they have doubts about any content ”, argued Lilian Núñez Novales, head of second cycle.
The group is completed by art instructors, computer teachers, physical education teachers and library specialists. The latter have achieved through educational talks that the boys appreciate how necessary the job or profession of mom and dad is and understand why their classmates are at home and they go to school every day.
“We open from 6:30 a.m. although most children arrive around 7:30 a.m. depending on the time of the families. They come from their house with the five established face masks and we guarantee them snack, lunch and snack. To date, we also welcome those from other centers in the area such as Renato Guitar, Martha Abreu and Enrique Saragosí ”, added Núñez Novales.
Also with the experience of the previous stage where they left their doors open, in the Grandes Alamedas semi-boarding school about 20 or 25 children receive this care every day.
According to Ondina Padrón Román, preschool pedagogical assistant, the spaces where there are no teleclasses are used to watch cartoons and children's films, hold debates on topics of interest according to their age and promote board games. All this strictly complying with the sanitary measures of distancing and washing hands with hypochlorite.
Since the closure in January, the teachers of the center implemented two forms of work: at a distance and in face-to-face groups in the classroom. The former go to homes to check how they receive television activities and doubts. These visits also serve to measure the content of greater difficulty and once incorporated they know where to systematize.
“We have never stopped having students and working parents appreciate that. They feel pleased and secure because in addition to copying the teleclasses, they consolidate content, ”said Amelia La Red Iturria, the teaching secretary of the semi-boarding school.
CIRCLES OF CONFIDENCE
With the nursery schools the situation is different because of the 65 in the province, 63 are in operation, only two remain closed due to the rearrangement of enrollment.
“The percentage of attendance has decreased compared to previous months but we continue to receive the little ones. We are now at 34.5% attendance, with an average of 58 infants per nursery school. In the case of municipalities that are not in the autochthonous transmission phase, attendance is much higher, while in the provincial capital it behaves between 20 and 25%, ”said Clay Pérez Jiménez, Deputy Director of Education in the territory.
As usual, nurses reinforce active investigations several times a day for all children and educators. In case they present any respiratory symptoms, they will not be allowed to enter the center, and for their reinstatement they must present a medical discharge.
“Similarly, the entry of family members or other outside personnel is not allowed, although concerns will be addressed in a more specific way. Likewise, babies whose parents have decided not to take them will not be given an unexcused absence so they do not lose their enrollment ”, emphasized the deputy director.
For Odalis Peña Rodríguez, director of the Lidia Doce nursery school, who now rotates through the Alas de Mariposa, the most important thing is that the family has interpreted that they constitute a safe place. “They know that none of our institutions has had a transmission event so far. We take care of their children as if they were ours, that has not changed ”.
Nor has it changed that the educational sector with pandemic or not be aware of the details of all students. The efforts were transformed but the objective remains the same, to ensure safety without neglecting the quality of teaching. Over the years, Education has overcome great challenges, the current one demands more love, and Camagüey has enough to overcome it.
Translated by Linet Acuña Quilez