The decision of the EPL was received with "surprise and displeasure" by the Ministry of Education, but welcomed by the health authorities.
"Our life depends a lot on the behavior of the disease, what will be tomorrow will depend on what we do today," Franco Mufinda told reporters this Monday in Luanda, considering that the attitude of the school is to "applaud," taking into account that a case has been registered.
"What should be done is to close the schools," stressed the head of Health, noting that when there are more students "what is expected is that there are cases.
"The evidence we have, from the study we conducted, on students who came from their homes, revealed at least exposure of students to SARS Cov2 [new coronavirus]. So the orientation for the schools is, when there are cases, to suspend," said Franco Mufinda.
The Portuguese School of Luanda announced in a statement, released on Saturday through its website, that in the first week of returning to classes in person "a large number of students did not attend," revealing "insecurity on the part of the parents," although all security and prevention measures have been adopted, so it decided to return to the non-presential regime from this Monday.
In addition, a positive case was registered of a student of the school.
The decision was received with "surprise and displeasure" by the Ministry of Education, which also stated in a statement that the decision taken by the Portuguese institution does not bind the Angolan government body, which attested to the fulfillment of the pedagogical and biosecurity requirements at school.
In the opinion of the Ministry of Education, the registration of a positive case of covid-19 in a student "is not enough element to decide to suspend the mixed regime, because the protocol of the Portuguese government, and by extension of the EPL, does not foresee the closure of schools based on having been diagnosed a case or two of covid-19".
The EPL's pedagogical direction also mentioned, in the document, that the evolution of the epidemiological situation in the country, with a progressive increase in the number of cases, as well as the weakness of response in terms of medical assistance, were factors that weighed on the decision.
On this observation, the Ministry of Education considered that, "it is not up to the EPL to make value judgments on the National Health System.
The Angolan Ministry of Education also urges the EPL to "establish a relationship of trust with parents and guardians, allowing them to feel more comfortable with the idea of sending their students to classes in person.
Angola has accounted for a total of 7829 cases of the new coronavirus up to the last 24 hours, of which 248 deaths, 3031 patients recovered, and another 4550 are active.
