The local government has prepared a safety protocol for schools and a series of actions to facilitate the "return to school".
The education councilors from the various municipalities of the Region held a meeting yesterday with the general secretary of the Regional Ministry of Education and several directors general in order to be informed of the measures planned for the beginning of the school year.
The Cieza Town Hall has offered the use of various municipal spaces to be converted into classrooms, thereby reducing class sizes and creating effective "bubble groups." The town's Education Councillor, María Ramos, stated that "there are more than 30 spaces in different parts of the town that could be used for teaching, in addition to the schools' common areas, such as libraries, gyms, writing rooms, music rooms, auditoriums, multipurpose rooms, and psychomotor skills rooms, among others."
For his part, Councilor Pascual Lucas says that “this measure would give families greater peace of mind, since this approach would allow for the creation of groups of between 15 and 18 students who would not interact with any other group, thus avoiding a hybrid learning model; furthermore, it would facilitate contact tracing should any infections arise.” The mayor of Cieza also requests “the hiring of more teachers by the Regional Government of Murcia (CARM), as is the case in other autonomous communities across the country, which are making a great effort in this regard and prioritizing what should be paramount at this time: education and healthcare,” he said.
According to sources at the Cieza City Council, “on the contrary, as proposed by the Regional Ministry of Education of the Region of Murcia for the start of the school year, students would go through six different groups throughout the week: four days in the classroom with different children each day, another morning in the after-school program, and, if they attend educational support classes, in the afternoons they would change groups again. This increases the number of students they interact with and, therefore, makes it more difficult to control the spread of COVID-19.”
“Neither the general secretary nor the general directors have been able to specify what the organization of the Conciliation Classroom would be, nor the criteria to be able to access it, since they claim that it depends on the Family Ministry.”
Furthermore, the government team has expressed on several occasions "the willingness to collaborate and the readiness of the Cieza City Council with the Ministry of Education to be able to face the return to school with the greatest guarantees of safety and confidence for the educational community and, therefore, we ask that the adaptation works that have arisen in the centers be undertaken urgently to comply with the new regulations in force," they stated.
The Education Councillor of Cieza regrets that the proposal to reduce the student-teacher ratio, which entails greater safety guarantees for students and teachers, was not heeded by the Ministry of Education and says she "has a lot of uncertainty and doubts about the imminent return to school."
Cieza does its homework for “Back to School”
On the contrary, “the town council has done its homework and has been working tirelessly all summer to prepare for the start of the school year in the best possible way. To this end, it has implemented a series of important measures to guarantee the safety of the students, such as increased cleaning in schools to comply with the health recommendations established in the Covid Guide.”
In addition, the playgrounds are being marked so that families and students can maintain safe distances at entrances and exits, and so that the different established bubble groups have stable spaces during recess.
An information campaign will also be launched to remind families of the guidelines and rules to follow in the so-called "new normal." Caretakers have been provided with information on occupational risk prevention, which will be reinforced in mid-September with in-person training. They have also been given backpacks to clean and disinfect the playgrounds every morning, and will receive specific instructions on how to handle the new circumstances. In addition to all these actions, all playgrounds will be cleaned and disinfected again before the start of the school year.
At the same time, coordination is underway with the Local Police and the Services Area to enable safe spaces outside educational centers for school entrances and exits.
Cieza plans to start the school year on September 9th, which they believe will be "very tough," and the Mayor's office says that "we hope the Regional Ministry will reconsider and heed the requests and offers that we, from the town halls, parent-teacher associations and teachers, are making in order to guarantee the greatest possible safety for the entire educational community."
File photo.
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