Education Minister Nicolás Trotta confirmed Friday that schools in Argentina would remain open "for the moment."
Trotta, 44, said it is not necessary to suspend classes to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, despite some provinces in the north shuttering classrooms.
The virus has infected 31 people in Argentina so far and forced President Alberto Fernández to declare a public health emergency yesterday for one year.
"We are coordinating minute-by-minute with the committee of specialists and they establish that, to this day, at this time, suspension of classes is not necessary," Trotta said.
"This may change in the next few hours, days or weeks, but all the reports from the specialists indicate that suspending classes today will not have a positive impact," the minister added in an interview with the TN news channel.
Meanwhile, PRO national deputy Martín Medina presented a project for the authorities of the Executive Power to order a "cessation of activities in educational establishments for a minimum of 15 days " at all educational levels.
"In turn, it is provided that educational establishments, through the use of technological channels, dictate classes or send assignments to guarantee compliance with academic objectives," read the text of the project, which the Noticias Argentinas news agency had access to.
The legislator in charge of the initiative indicated that he accompanied the presentation of the project by sending emails to Trotta and Health Minister Ginés González García, requesting they order the immediate halt of classes in both primary and secondary schools, as well as at tertiary and university institutions.
"Although they are not age groups that are at risk of death from coronavirus, they can begin to reproduce the contagion much more massively. There are already provinces that have begun to take these measures, such as Jujuy and Salta, and it would be important for there to be a cessation of most places, to have a control of the virus and so that the government has more tools," he said.
Regarding the decision to suspend classes in the Jujuy and Misiones provinces, the head of the national educational portfolio clarified the two situations:.
"The fact that classes have to be suspended in any particular province does not mean that it should happen in the rest of the country. And here it is necessary to clarify that Jujuy suspends due to the prevention of the coronavirus and Misiones for a different matter, in this case due to dengue," the official explained.
Trotta commented that they are working on alternatives in the event that classes should be suspended later, such as virtual classrooms and different types of remote communications.
– TIMES/PERFIL
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