Face-to-face classes in general education, at the level of transition classes such as 6th, 9th, 11th and 13th classes, and in the university education subsystem, were resumed, in a phased manner, after six months of suspension due to the pandemic.
The lack of temperature measurement thermometers and alcohol gel at the entrance of schools, schools without running water, or visors for teachers, washbasins, degraded rooms and bathrooms were the scenario found by Lusa in some schools in the capital.
At the school of the 1st cycle of secondary education No. 1,057 “Juventude em Luta”, in the district of Maianga, in Luanda, some students came to the institution to have the first class of this day, keeping their distance in the classroom.
Emília Pinto Dóqui, professor of Chemistry, valued the return to classes, but regretted, in declarations to Lusa, the lack of basic conditions for teachers.
“(Internally) there are no biosecurity conditions, but we are going to work with what we have, the school is making efforts so that we can work anyway, with what we have, but I would like the State to see that side. At the moment, we don't have electricity, we don't have water to clean the students ”, he said.
The teacher who spoke at the end of the class, in front of a group of 14 students, pointed out the need for teachers to have bottles of gel alcohol, claiming to have used one that they acquired with their own means.
“More respect for teachers”, especially with regard to the regular guarantee of tests for covid-19, was another of the requests of Professor Emília Pinto Dóqui, regretting not having had the opportunity to take the test due to the “confusion” of last week .
“I didn't take a test on the day indicated for teachers, because I think the State has to respect teachers more. The Ministry of Health had to find a middle ground to assist teachers by school, ”he said.
“A single team for that whole mess, no, if she (Minister of Education) hasn't seen a teacher dying yet, do you want to see it now? I don't intend to die now, that's why I didn't, ”he shot.
Last week, in Luanda, the massive testing of about 3000 teachers by the health authorities was marked by the disorganization in the test centers, where long lines and gatherings of teachers were generated.
For their part, the students of “Juventude em Luta” welcomed the return to school, stating that the Government made “a good decision”, regretting, however, the lack of biosecurity conditions.
"We lined up on arrival to wash our hands, but we still don't have a device to measure the temperature," said student Elizabeth Maria Francisco, 14, guaranteeing that she had "no fear".
The conditions here, said student Faustriliano Leonel da Silva, 13, “are more or less”.
"I saw that the school is short of water, everyone brought their alcohol in gel from home and this is a good thing to prevent," added the young man.
The administrative director of the school, Miguel João, praised the return to school, stating that the school "has a protocol for the entry and exit of students, complies with the measures of biosafety and distance".
"Now what we do not comply with is the first item of our protocol, which is the measurement of temperature, we did not receive the thermometer, we are waiting for the thermometer and also for visors for teachers", he noted.
Martinho Sita, in charge of education, appealed to parents to thoroughly check the conditions in schools, especially public ones, because, he stressed, "some are not prepared to receive students".
"We hope that this return and the conditions now created will be continuous so that we can prevent ourselves against this harmful disease", he stressed.
In the municipality of Cazenga, one of the most populous in Luanda, administrative staff at the 1st cycle secondary school 3053, better known as “Paiva Domingos da Silva”, lamented the “lack of minimum conditions”.
Without accepting to record an interview, the head of the Secretariat stated that the institution, in which most of the rooms have cracks, degraded desks, bathrooms without doors, running water and holes inside, does not have the conditions to restart classes.
The lack of a thermometer for measuring temperature, of buckets, drums or washbasins for students, as well as alcohol gel devices are other difficulties observed at the school “Paiva Domingos da Silva”.
