Teachers  call for nationwide school closures to fight pandemic

While the World Health Organization (WHO)  was declaring the  Coronavirus outbreak a  pandemic on Wednesday, March 11. The Association of Panama Teachers  on Wednesday March 11 called on health authorities to suspend classes throughout the country.

In a press conference, teachers lamented the death of  Norato González of the Monsignor Francisco Beckman School associated with the coronavirus, according to the Ministry of Health (Minsa).

Herrera Educators  Association also joined the request to suspend classes.

A statement signed by  Angel Raúl Rivera, secretary-general of the Association, says that the request is justified as there are schools throughout the country, especially in the interior, that lack the basic services for students to comply with the measures indicated by the Ministry of Health.

The requests came after the announcement made by the head of Education, Maruja Gorday, that classes would be suspended only in Central Panama, North Panama and San Miguelito.

The association said that most of the schools of Herrera and Los Santos do not have the cleaning kits and acquiring them with the money from the Equity and Educational Quality Fund (FECE) represents a whole bureaucracy.

Mayors from several districts of the country made the decision to suspend public activities a day after the Minsa confirmed the death of a person associated with Covid-19 (new coronavirus).

To date  the districts that have canceled dance activities, sports, horseback riding, cockfighting, are Arraiján in Panama Oeste; Barú, Boquete and Dolega in the province of Chiriquí; Pesadía, in Los Santos; and the Pintada district, of Coclé.

Meanwhile, in West Panama the schools that have decided – together with the parents – to suspend classes is El Limón, in Barrio Colón; Altos de San Francisco, and Guillermo Endara Galimany, in La Chorrera.