Around 25 classrooms of the different levels of education in Las Tunas were closed, at the end of this report, due to surveillance because there are possibilities that some students are infected with the COVID-19.

Las Tunas, Cuba.- Enrolled students are contacts of other contacts of positive cases and, although that does not mean that the virus is in the schools, it undoubtedly sets off the alarms in each family. There is also a high number of other isolated students and 217 workers due to flu, fever and related symptoms.

In the midst of such a complex panorama, the sector authorities ask for trust and ensure that the health protocols, which include 30 mandatory measures and many others that have been added given the specific characteristics of the province, are met with extreme rigor. The best proof of this is that the school year is progressing with the greatest possible normality in these times.

Yolanda Palma, School Health Advisor in the Provincial Directorate of Education, spoke about these issues with 26. In her opinion, the key is in communication and the sincerity of family and close friends.

“It is absurd to think that there is no risk. Of course, we have to be careful in the communities, the queues, the streets, everywhere… not just in schools.

“We do daily monitoring of the children who are living with travelers at home and not just foreigners, because many receive relatives from other territories and we know that some of those places have complicated situations with the pandemic right now.

“Many families trust with the first PCR. Health authorities have been emphatic in explaining that this depends on the viral load that the person has at the time of taking the sample. You have to wait the second for a more conclusive result. And not all do that.

“If they are not honest when explaining that a relative is coming from another place for the school to take the measures, everything becomes more difficult for us. That, with the situation that the country has now, is very serious indiscipline because it is not that at school we want to know what happens inside someone's house, it has to do with responsibility for the life of everyone and the own family.”

Something similar has been happening in other educational centers in Las Tunas for the same reason. When that happens -explains Yolanda Palma- the protocol to follow is very specific.

“First, isolate that child who has been a contact. Then, if the traveler is positive, the student becomes a confirmed case contact and the procedure is to sanitize the physical spaces of the school to which could have access (classrooms, laboratories, bathrooms) and isolate the classmates for surveillance in their houses. Among those who are under surveillance, up to 10 more direct contacts are being sought. Generally, those who sit closer in the classroom, for example; and those are closely monitored."

The Director of Education, Nilser Piñeda, reflected that the act of hiding information is a scourge to consider in the midst of this pandemic, during one of the meetings on these issues that are held in the territory.

He explained about some 300 students from the municipality of Jesús Menéndez, isolated by the indiscipline of the parents of a few who went to a birthday party and in the following days returned to the classrooms. Now, everyone is waiting for the results of the exams and the tranquility and the teaching process of a childcare center, a semi-boarding school and a junior high school have been affected.

Some families make reference to the fact that, given the tightness of the teaching of content in this stage, there is a fear that the student will fall behind in learning and this will end up affecting their academic performance.

In this sense, experts from the educational sector insist that schools have the responsibility of preparing worksheets for students to review knowledge during confinement and also recommended following the classes that began for other provinces by three national television channels before the rise of COVID-19.

The classes on the different teachings have also concentrated on a single session; eliminating Physical Education classes for about a month, as well as other complementary, without compromising the essence of the teaching process. In addition, in some cases, such as Secondary School, work is done on advancing the partial exams that are possible, without compromising the content to be taught and the rigor of the learning process.