Until the month of July, there were five months of television broadcasts that began on January 20 and were reinforced with a broader grid that did not stop even in the worst moments of the scourge of the COVID 19 pandemic on the island.
However, not everything remained in what the students received through the small screen, other virtual channels were opened such as groups on social networks, especially WhatsApp, which implied an extra effort from both teachers and families.
In fact, the contribution and active participation of this fundamental nucleus of society to the education of our children was, perhaps, one of the greatest challenges and also one of the most important gains of the period, since the complexity of the situation forced mothers , parents, grandparents, grandmothers, uncles, aunts … to grow up and become teachers.
But at this stage, the schools also kept their doors and phone lines open to support those who were teaching from home. The Ministry of Education enabled the possibility of approaching its institutions to receive the necessary guidance.
When the expected time to return to the classroom finally arrived, no one had been resting, but rather positions in order to guarantee the vitality and continuity of the 2020-2021 academic year, aware of all the complexities that it would entail.
An even more heterogeneous student body returned to classes in terms of their levels of preparation, so that an initial diagnosis was imposed from an academic point of view, but also with different degrees of psychological affectation due to the confinement and losses caused by COVID. As never before, our teachers have had to use their psycho-pedagogical knowledge and tools so that not a single student was left behind.
Material resources have also been put in line with this objective. A report by the Cuban News Agency assures that: “for those who at home do not have a television or the necessary conditions to concentrate and assimilate the content, classrooms were set up in nearby schools, with staff ready to help them make up for lost time and erase the disadvantages in the academic order. ”
So much and everything so that this November finally arrived with that happy day in which the streets of this country are dressed in uniforms and scarves, a party that they tried to hide from us, but once again we Cubans knew how to put everything in its place and classrooms were opened in peace and quiet throughout the country, with adjustments in dates and modalities depending on the epidemiological situation of each locality and with infinite faith in our sovereign vaccines.
Off-road masters
And since we are talking about vaccines, it is worth an aside to highlight that many schools in the largest of the Antilles assumed the role of vaccinators during the massive campaigns that were carried out, but almost all of them opened their doors for the immunization of children and adolescents, another feat of the alligator that was accompanied by education workers.
Teachers, professors, administrators, in general the personnel of the sector, remained active in different functions while the classrooms remained closed. For example, Minister Ena Elsa Velázquez Cobiella, highlighted in a tweet on March 27 that 181 educational institutions in the country functioned as isolation centers and 5000 workers in the field worked for them.
“The teachers do not stop, they produce food, analyze the budget, prepare themselves, attend to their students, keep the daycare centers open and work in the isolation centers,” he also highlighted in those days from his Twitter account.
Those same teachers, opened the doors of their classrooms in November, no less tired by the vicissitudes of these times of pandemic, but with all the disposition and dedication essential to educate which is, we already know, an act of infinite love. . And in Cuba, it is also the absolute and irrevocable guarantee of a right: study, learn.
