More than 800 teachers joined the centers yesterday, which continue to suffer from the daily trickle of casualties due to Covid
The explosion of the Ómicron variant threatens to alter normality in the schools and institutes of the Region for at least a few more days. Yesterday, the educational centers received with relief the incorporation of the more than 800 teachers who replace as many teachers on leave due to Covid (and other contingencies), and the forecast is that they will remain in their destination after the incorporation of the head to whom replace at least a few days. Thus, and with the aim of giving some stability to the educational centers, these interns will not leave the position the same day that the sick teacher returns, but will continue to carry out support tasks in the center or cover splits for a couple of more days. .
The Ministry of Education has also begun to cover teacher vacancies even when they have not submitted the withdrawal form or have not completed the process, in order to avoid more days of class being lost while waiting for the document and the withdrawal is covered before . The regional Administration has decided to fill the vacancy when the leave is communicated by the teacher, even if there is no record of the leave, because it is aware of the serious problems that professionals are encountering in obtaining a medical appointment and completing the process.
The Ómicron variant triggers the incidence in schools and institutes
The contagion curve has skyrocketed in the first week of class in schools and institutes in the Region, which, after all, offer a reflection of the general incidence among the population. If on December 17 of last year barely 134 positive students were counted, the figure exceeded 4,480 yesterday. The infected teachers barely added up to 52 on December 17, and yesterday there were already 655. However, the proportion of students in quarantine is much lower, since in many cases they are vaccinated, the records are almost the same. The number of infected teachers represents 2.5% of the total, a percentage slightly higher than the national average. The Minister of Education estimated yesterday that 17,000 teachers, around 2.3% of the total national workforce, are on sick leave due to Covid. The impact of the coronavirus among teachers is different by autonomies: some have 4% casualties and others, just 1.5%.
The arrival of reinforcements has not prevented the continuation, although to a lesser extent, of the trickle of absences among teachers that generate new vacancies. “Today the substitute teachers that we demand have been incorporated, but we have registered two new casualties due to infections,” explained the director of the Sanje de Alcantarilla institute and president of the Association of Secondary Education Directors, Isabel Saturno. Like the unions, he regretted that Education does not maintain fixed reinforcements to avoid instability in the templates due to the entry of new teachers each week.
Via telephone
The Ministry, for its part, insisted that the vacancies presented between Wednesday and Thursday are trying to be filled by telephone, although this system is less effective than the telematic assignment to cover absences that is carried out on Tuesdays, since interim In that case, they do not know what their destination will be, and many prefer not to take the offer and wait a few days to participate in the traditional format of allocating places.
The return to the classroom after the Christmas holidays coincided with the emergence of the Omicron variant, which has deflated the classrooms of schools and institutes, both among teachers and students. Next Tuesday another process of awarding places via telematics will be convened again like this week, although it is not expected to be as large.
Students at home for fear of contagion and parents with positive children with difficulties in reconciling
The problems suffered by the school population are not different from those that affect the rest of the sectors, but their incidence affects the vast majority of homes, where this week they are making impossible adjustments to square schedules. In many cases, parents with infected children encounter serious difficulties in taking care of the little ones, since, being vaccinated, they do not have to quarantine and must go to their jobs. Only if the illness of the minors becomes complicated, can they enjoy days for their care. In all other cases, they can choose to request permission to telecommute or reduce their working hours (and hours). In schools these days they also accuse more unjustified absences of minors, especially the smallest, which in many cases are due to fear of contagion or prevention by parents because the minor has compatible symptoms. The Ministry of Education does not have data on the absences of minors from class not related to positives.
.