The Minister of Education and Vocational Training, Pilar Alegría, stressed that this next school year “we have a very different situation from last year” due to the vaccination process against Covid-19.
In this regard, he stressed that, at this time, more than 30 million Spanish citizens already have the complete guideline . In the case of the group of students from 12 to 18 years old , “50% already have a guideline and 10% already have the complete guideline . “
This was stated in statements to the media after visiting, together with the president of the Government of Navarra, María Chivite, the Gurpea industrial maintenance and automotive engineering company located in Barbatáin (Navarra).
Asked about the measures that will be adopted at the beginning of the school year, the minister has announced that next Wednesday, August 25, she will meet with the Autonomous Communities, “to discuss all those issues that they consider appropriate for the beginning of the school year “.
In this sense, he pointed out that last year “we had neither experience nor vaccination, and yet our country has been an example because it opted for this face-to-face education.” And he has valued that “thanks to the efforts of the entire educational community, families, students, but also teachers and principals, we were able to ensure that at least 90% of the classrooms in our system each week education were open. “
Pilar Alegría remarked that “we must recognize and thank the magnificent work that the entire educational community did to make it possible to exercise this right to education and, furthermore, to do so in a safe environment.”
In addition, he recalled that last May there was a sectoral commission on Education, together with the Interterritorial Commission for Health, in which “a sanitary protocol was approved to deal with the epidemiological situation that we were going to encounter along the way. throughout this time. ” A protocol that “has had some update” by the Interterritorial Health Commission.
Conditions that “start with some very important differences with those we had last year,” said the minister, who explained that “the use of the mask will continue to be maintained, supporting the ventilation of the classrooms, with distancing 1.5 meters, which in some cases can be made more flexible to 1.2 “.
The minister stressed that this course “we have a very different situation from last year” due to the vaccination process against Covid-19, which, in the case of the 12 to 18 age group, reaches 50% with a dose already 10% with the complete regimen.
“With which, last year we were able to do well thanks to the collective effort of our educational community and the autonomous communities, and this year I have no doubt that we will continue to do well,” he asserted.
Asked about the possibility of vaccinating children under 12 years of age , Alegría recalled that “at this time all the Autonomous Communities have opened vaccination to those over 12 years of age, it is a decision that corresponds to the health authorities and national organizations and international “.
“That not only our children but also all teachers and society as a whole are vaccinated in a large majority will allow us to improve the situation,” he stressed.
Asked about whether teachers are going to be asked for a ‘Covid passport’, the minister stressed that “practically all teachers and all professions in any other area are already all vaccinated, which is what matters to us right now: that all people who have that right, who are over 12 years old and who can be vaccinated, get vaccinated. ” “That is the success of our country, that we have exceeded that 70% of the target population and I think that is the way we have to continue working,” he concluded.