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Cuba plans to restart in September the current school year, interrupted because of COVID-19, while maintaining televised classes for all educational levels, Education Minister Ena Elsa Velázquez reported this Tuesday.
Velázquez cleared the doubts about the return to the classrooms in an appearance on the Mesa Redonda TV program, where she assured that the “advisable thing” is to wait three months before reopening the schools, closed at the end of last March because of the epidemic.
https://twitter.com/PresidenciaCuba/status/1267966925163819008
The minister of education clarified that the programming of televised classes will continue, readjusted at all levels of education to prioritize the subjects with pending evaluations.
She recalled that the Cubaeduca web portal and the MiclaseTV application host the contents of these lessons free of charge.
“At the right time students will also be able to enjoy their vacation period,” said the minister, who announced that the study plans for the 2020-2021 school year, which will begin at the end of the current one, are already being modified.
Regarding state-run daycare centers, she indicated that 30% have been kept open to ease the burden on parents with essential jobs.
Enrollment in the more than 10,700 elementary, junior and senior high schools on the island is 1.7 million students, with more than 162,000 teachers, for a 95% coverage, according to official data.
Cuba remains in the pre-epidemic phase with limited local transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, for which preventive measures are being applied such as the suspension of public transportation, the closure of borders except for exceptional cases, and the closure of schools and major commercial centers.
The use of the mask is mandatory in public spaces and, although there is no forced confinement, citizens have been asked not to leave home except for essential activities such as going to the market or doing paperwork.
To date, the country has 2,092 coronavirus positive cases, of which 1,827 (87.4%) have already recovered.
Despite the fact that in recent weeks the number of contagions showed a decreasing trend, several massive outbreaks in Havana have triggered the numbers of daily infected, most of them asymptomatic, which is why the Cuban authorities insist that the pandemic still hasn’t been controlled.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel recently stressed that “although the country is already preparing the entire strategy for the recovery stage of COVID-19, it cannot be applied until we are very sure that there is an exact control of the epidemic.”
With information from EFE and PL
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