Minedu considers cutting school holidays to recover classes missed by COVID-19

The Ministry of Education (Minedu) is considering cutting the summer school holidays of 2023 in search of recovering the classes missed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and give continuity to the process of recovering student learning.

This was stated by the head of the sector, Rosendo Serna, who announced that they plan to buy the teachers' January and February holidays to make up for the two years in which students were educated through virtual classes.

“We are working on buying teachers' and teachers' vacations for January and February, so that there is a continuity in the recovery of students' learning,” Serna told Exitosa, where she also said that a diagnosis of this process will have to be made beforehand, in order to identify the level of advancement of students, and have differentiated classes.

On the other hand, the Minister of Education regretted that the state of education infrastructure nationwide is not the best because many works are paralyzed by legal conflicts with contractors.

“Unfortunately, we have paralyzed works. We must provide regulations so that legal conflicts do not cause the paralysis of educational infrastructure works. In the end, the most affected are the students,” he said.

Regarding the 100% capacity in the classrooms, the minister said that the measure is becoming more flexible, according to the new regulations proposed by the Ministry of Health, but on the subject of distance, which is one meter, the Minedu is planning to return to 80 centimeters between schoolchildren.

100% OF STUDENTS RETURNED TO SCHOOL

Rosendo Serna reported that the opening of 100% of public schools in the country and the return to face-to-face classes of millions of schoolchildren nationwide after two years of remote teaching were completed. He described the process as a real challenge met by his sector in the context of the health emergency.

“In the government of President Pedro Castillo, the Ministry of Education will have priority; that is why we are consolidating efforts and overcoming adversity, you have a very special situation because you are very talented at the academic level, make the best use of your stay because you have the best teachers, laboratories, logistics and all the benefits to be the best,” he said, addressing the students of the High Performance College (COAR) Lima, located in Chaclacayo.

He also pointed out that “the country needs good people and better citizens with another vision of the future, with mysticism and prospects, you are the relay we hope for you to build a new democratic society with principles, that respects institutions, governance and popular decision, and you are the guarantee of that change that needs the country”

FREE ADMISSION TO UNIVERSITIES

As for what was announced a few days ago by the president of the republic, Pedro Castillo, about free and direct admission to public universities Minister Serna said that this process will be gradual, since it must be preceded by a program to strengthen public universities, with better infrastructure and logistics.

“Free admission to universities will be a gradual process. We will give resources to teachers, improve infrastructure and optimize logistics. We need to strengthen the public university,” he told the station.

Serna also announced that next week they will send a document addressed to the Chief of the Ministerial Cabinet, Aníbal Torres, and the President of the Republic, Pedro Castillo, in order to make the necessary improvements.

“The proposal is to reach half a year with a real proposal and propose some pilots that will allow us to evaluate [free admission to universities],” he said.

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