The students of Easter Island will be the first in Chile to return to classes, after almost a month of talks between the island municipality and the Ministry of Education of the country, the authorities reported on Thursday.
“Collecting the desire of the community and the mayor of Rapa Nui to open the educational establishments, considering that on the island the sanitary conditions are given and following the protocols delivered by the Ministry of Health, a gradual return to face classes in that territory will begin,” said the head of Education, Raúl Figueroa, in a statement.
The return to class will begin with the middle room courses of the municipal school Aldea Educativa de Rapa Nui next July 1.
“The return will be gradually, voluntarily, with protocols and guidelines that protect the health of the entire educational community,” the minister said.
The tourist island of Easter (Rapa Nui in its local language), located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, detected its first case of coronavirus on March 23 but is currently free of contagion.
To combat the pandemic, the islanders practiced “tapu”, an ancestral method based on coexistence and respect for the norms of nature, as a form of quarantine, in such a way that working hours and the opening of shops were restricted.
Last week the Ministry of Education sent to the educational community of Rapa Nui the protocol of the Ministry of Health, guidelines that contemplate measures to reorganize the schools in addition to a pedagogical plan.
The Ministry also provided the establishments with a health kit with cleaning, disinfection and protection items for students, management team, teachers and education assistants.
It should be remembered that Chile suspended classes on March 15, days after the arrival of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in the country. With the implementation of the measure, island students will be the first in the whole territory to resume face-to-face education.
With 259,064 cases of contagion and 4,903 accumulated death, Chile is the seventh country in the world most affected by the spread of COVID-19.
In addition to the suspension of classes and its replacement by the virtual modality, the Latin American country has closed its borders and paralyzed its economic activity.
