Educational centers are not immune to the increase in covid infections in Spain in recent weeks, which mainly affects children under 11 years of age, with the highest accumulated incidence of cases of all age groups: 412 per 100,000 inhabitants . However, the reference figures, especially the percentage of classrooms in quarantine, remain at small percentages: they were 0.28% of classes in the week of November 21 to 26 and the number of classes rose to 0.38%. last week, according to the latest data provided by the Ministry of Education. Although the figure of 0.38% is an estimate – the data for La Rioja and the Balearic Islands are lacking, which due to “technical problems” were not sent to the ministry – it is still well below the highest data recorded last year ( in the first quarter, quarantines reached 1.5% of classrooms), which were considered a success of the educational system.
Quique Bassat, epidemiologist and member of the Spanish Society of Pediatrics, warns that these data underestimate what is happening in schools, since the vast majority of these confined classrooms are in primary school (they are 95%), and a good part of positive cases in secondary school do not cause the entire class to be closed. Despite this, “the centers are safe spaces; the cases are still very few and the figures are still very good ”, he insists afterwards. The numbers of students in quarantine handled by the Ministry of Education lack the details of confined students from various communities, but comparing those of those who do give them, the number has grown in the last week by more than 38%, from 37,414 to 51,725, which represents 0.89% of its students.
What worries Bassat is that this year there are some outbreaks in schools, that is, that the school is in some cases being the focus of contagion. “This had not happened last year, cases were detected immediately and people stayed at home. But this year I think, first of all, that more sick children are being sent to class and that controls have been relaxed in schools ”. In the data of the ministry it can be seen that, except in Aragon, there is more than one closed classroom on average in each school. In the Valencian Community, the average is 1.7 classes in quarantine per school and in Navarra, 1.84.
The epidemiologist believes, in any case, that the figures will improve with the vaccination of children between 5 and 11 years old, approved this Tuesday by the Public Health Commission and that it will begin on December 15.
In the absence of data for La Rioja and the Balearic Islands, and without taking into account Andalusia, Castilla y León and Madrid (which do not offer the Ministry of Education this disaggregated information), those of infantile and primary (especially the latter) represent the 95% of classrooms in quarantine. In fact, in Aragon, Asturias, Extremadura, Galicia, Murcia, Castilla-La Mancha, Ceuta and Melilla, they are 100%.
The situation of the schools is different depending on the community. Thus, last week they had just over 1% of the classrooms closed in Navarra (1.59%), Cantabria (1.48%), the Basque Country (1.29%) and Asturias (1.24%). Thus, the percentage of affected centers also varies enormously, from 1.7% in Catalonia and 2.42% in Castilla-La Mancha, to 15.63% in Navarra and 20.16% in the Country Basque.
Tired and angry parents
The fact that those affected are now mainly the little ones and are not vaccinated raises the concern of parents, a fact that, together with the fact that the outbreaks with closures of various kinds “make a lot of noise”, can spread the feeling that the situation it is getting out of control in educational centers, says Bassat.
María Carmen Morillas, vice president of Ceapa, the main federation of public school parents’ associations, adds about this perception: past, ”he says. “Because now we have experience in many aspects, but regarding the conciliation problem we remain the same,” he complains in reference to the continuous and unsuccessful requests of his association to the Government to articulate mechanisms by which working parents can stay at home to care for their quarantined children. “At the beginning, companies raised their hands a little more, but now, with all vaccinated adults, no longer,” he adds.
José Pedro Caballero, president of the National Catholic Confederation of Parents and Parents of Students (Concapa), defends that “the incidence is rebounding very quickly, with entire classrooms closed”, and attributes it, among other things, to the decrease in this course of support teachers in the classrooms. In addition, he is angered by the fact that parents’ associations have not been informed or consulted about the vaccination campaign for children under 11 that has just been approved.
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