CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela on Monday reopened public colleges and universities which serve greater than 11 million college students, after a protracted closure amid the coronavirus pandemic, although some colleges remained closed for repairs or due to lack of workers.
President Nicolas Maduro’s authorities has delayed the restart of in-person lessons a number of instances, amid new peaks in infections and vaccination delays.
Youth Minister Mervin Maldonado mentioned 8.7 million kids would return to school rooms throughout the nation and a few 3.1 million college students would resume attending universities.
Kids wearing uniforms of blue pants and purple shirts and sporting masks filed into colleges within the capital Caracas beginning at 7 a.m., as lecturers distributed antibacterial gel.
One mom, Jenny Bejarano, mentioned she felt “a bit nervous” about potential coronavirus infections as she dropped off her son Fabian on the Venezuela Experimental Schooling Unit faculty in central Caracas.
“Our well being system, it isn’t a secret from anybody, is missing,” mentioned Bejarano, a cardiorespiratory staffer at a non-public clinic. She mentioned there’s a deep shortage of medicines and provides.
However 8-year-old Fabian was excited to see his third-grade classmates, mentioned Bejarano, 47.
About 40% of the college’s 1,700 registered college students returned to lessons on Monday, mentioned group consultant Pedro Zambrano.
“For us the return to lessons is essential, however now we have doubts,” mentioned Maria Clemente, an official on the Venezuelan Federation of Lecturers, which has some 325,000 members.
Some lecturers will stay absent for worry of getting sick or due to low salaries, she mentioned, including that the utmost month-to-month wage for her members is 118 bolivares, equal to $27.
Down the street at Caracas’ oldest faculty, the Andres Bello Instructional Complicated, Director Wilmer Marcano presided over a largely empty constructing. Repairs will delay its restart for 2 weeks, he mentioned.
These age 12 and up in Venezuela at the moment are eligible for his or her first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
The federal government says 56% of the inhabitants of 28.7 million has been vaccinated, although the Pan-American Well being Group says simply 21.6% are absolutely protected.
(Reporting by Vivian Sequera; Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb; Modifying by Jonathan Oatis)
