Risk group teachers only return to face-to-face classes if they want to in Madeira

This is a novelty conveyed by the Madeira Teachers Union (SPM), after the coordinator, Francisco Oliveira, met this Wednesday with the Regional Secretary for Education, Jorge Carvalho. Teachers who are considered to belong to a risk group only return to face-to-face classes in Madeira, if they so wish, something that also extends to teachers who live with people also considered to be at risk. In both cases, said the union leader, teachers “will only come back if they want to”.

The meeting requested by the SPM aimed to analyze the professionals’ questions, mainly to try to understand how the secretary is preparing the return to classes from the 1st of June, but not only. There was a set of situations addressed, such as doubts related to the processes of teacher evaluation and training, teleworking and distance learning, and in this last point Francisco Oliveira indicated to the DIARY that “not all children had distance learning” due to the lack of equipment, in this model that was “much more demanding” and that caused “more disinterest and less use” by the students. “The results are not the same,” he said.

The guarantees that will be taken on return to schools were also addressed at this meeting. Doubts that extend to what recommendations to adopt, whether there will be provision of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) or where classes will be taught, in which rooms and with what distance between students and teachers. Rules that will soon be released by the Secretary of Education.

Another point to remember from this meeting is related to the next academic year, where two essential points are already established: the return to normality or a possible new confinement.

From Diário Notícias