The prime minister appointed today the 4th of May as the deadline for a resumption of classroom classes to ensure normal compliance with the school calendar, particularly in secondary education.
This position on the deadline for the reopening of the third period of the school year was taken by António Costa on Rádio Renascença, during the program “As Três da Morro”, in an interview mainly conducted by journalist Eunice Lourenço.
“There is one thing that we know, the deadline for the school calendar, namely for secondary education, to be fulfilled with the greatest possible normality is for face-to-face teaching to start on May 4th. This is, let's say, the limit for everything to happen normally”, said the prime minister.
If face-to-face classes restart until May 4th, according to the executive leader, “the exam season can go until the end of July, possibly leaving the second season to September, so as not to disturb the normal cycle of August. , a moment of collective pause in the educational system”.
However, António Costa insisted on stressing that everything is open.
“We are following day by day the evolution [of covid-19 in Portugal]. We cannot disarm and we have to measure. Therefore, we set the next 9th to make a decision [on the reopening of the school year] with the information that is available at the time and with the horizon that it is possible to reach”, he clarified.
Asked about adjustments in access to Higher Education, the prime minister said that the presidential decree that renews the state of emergency until April 17th creates above all a general framework for a set of opportunities.
"The criterion we have been using is that of maximum containment with minimum disturbance, and what I want is that rules do not have to be changed specifically for this year, being possible only to adjust calendars recovering as much as possible this time - a time that does not it was lost, but in which schools made a huge effort and so did the students”, he replied.
In this interview, the prime minister repeated that, next Tuesday, there will be the third meeting between holders of sovereign bodies, party leaders and employers and union confederations with epidemiologists, this time focused on the possibility of reopening the school year.
“We have to be able to finish this school year in the fairest, equitable and most standardized way possible”, he stressed.
António Costa also said that before a decision is made (on the 9th), he will receive party leaders with parliamentary representation the day before, in parallel with meetings of the National Education Council and School Council.
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