They are calling to save quality education in Panama

Facing the 2022 school year that begins next March, the report, “Education, Shared Responsibility,” signed by CCiap President José Ramón Icaza and which Prinsa Latina has been able to access, warns of the negative impact of classroom closures for two years. due to Covid-19.

Recently published results of the 2019 Regional Comparative and Interpretive Study indicate that the text, reflects the precarious position of students in subjects such as Spanish – reading, mathematics and natural sciences, recognized as priorities for people’s job performance.

In all of these indicators, Panamanian students were below the regional average and among the latter.

He said that the document that was delivered to the Presidency of the Republic within the framework of the bicentennial anniversary of Panama’s independence from Spain, last November, contains agreements to enhance the quality of education for marginalized groups and regions, and to ensure higher standards for teacher training. the message.

According to Icaza, the 2022 school calendar should be seen personally as a signal to raise the shoulders of education, ensure that 100 percent of students return to the classroom and meet the needs of this sector with urgency.

National education is not a job that can only be left to politicians or governments nowadays, because it is a shared responsibility, Cciap adds.

Regarding the shortcomings of virtual education, Christian Mondoet, the UN Resident Coordinator in Panama, recently warned that education is one of the elements that requires presence and urged that children not be left behind.

In one of the continent’s longest-running lockdowns, face-to-face classes in public and private schools in Panama were suspended in March 2020 precisely after the school’s first confirmed case of Covid-19 emerged.

Months later, students began taking virtual lessons infrequently, but a significant number did not have the means or connection for remote sessions, focusing on hard-to-reach rural areas and a gradual return in May this year. An increase in the number of infected people.

jha / ja