Parents who decide not to send their children to the classroom and stay in distance classes, must present a formal letter to the management of each educational center. In this document, the legal guardian must explain the reasons why they decide that their son or daughter does not attend in person classes and in turn, agrees to keep up to date with the matters that will be seen in the classroom.
The director of Curricular Development of the Ministry of Public Education (MEP), María Alexandra Ulate, told that parents who decide to keep their children at home should take into account that this year they will not have the permanent attention of the staff teacher, since they must give classes to students who did return.
Informed decision
“It is very important that the parent knows that they have the right to decide whether the minor or the adolescent who studies, returns or not to the educational center, either due to a special health situation or because they simply decided to do so.
“They (the parents) will have to communicate it in a written and formal way to the direction of each educational center so that from there the teacher is informed and he / she knows the status of the student and can make all the projection of the schedule and make the subgroups according to the information that comes from the home,” said the official.
For the MEP it is important that before making the decision not to send students to the classroom, parents take the time to get to know the organization of each educational center and “give them the opportunity” to show them that all health protocols will be complied with. established.
Know the new normal
Ulate added that the child whose parents decided to leave him at home will have to work school chores alone most of the time. “We as MEP are proposing distance and in person education, both, because there we have the support of the teacher in the classroom that strengthens important learning processes so that later at home the student continues his learning.
“But the parent who decides only to stay with remote study has to know that his or her son or daughter is going to stay with work guides, autonomous, as they did last year, with printed sheets or if they have a digital computer, but knowing that he is not going to have 100 percent attention from the teaching staff”.
The official stated that the Ministry does not have the capacity to place equipment and cameras in all classrooms to maintain permanent contact with students at home and that, for that reason, the attention of educators will be given priority to children who are in person.
“There are parents who say, I leave my children at home because he has a computer, internet and from there the teacher attends to me and it must be said: the teacher cannot be attending to the group that is present and the children who are in the house. For that, there is a time where shared lessons will be held or a weekly period defined by each educational center for the teacher to connect with all students.”
A different interaction
“But it is not that the child is going to be cared for at home while the teacher is at the school, that is not the real scenario because we do not have the capacity. It is difficult for the teacher to think that they will have to take care of the 10 or 15 children in person and at the same time those who are at home, that will not be possible”, explained the official.
According to the MEP, each educational center is coordinating this week to define the working hours and mechanisms they will have, as well as to inform parents how they will return to class.
