Open bars and closed schools: Brazil and Argentina go six months without classes

Six months after schools were closed due to Covid-19 isolation measures around South America, the continent’s two largest economies have yet to resume in-person classes, bar some sporadic experiments.

In the last three months, major cities in Brazil and Argentina have gradually resumed activities that may cause public gatherings. Bars in Buenos Aires reopened in early September, while shopping malls in São Paulo have been operating since as early as July — albeit with strict security protocols. In Rio de Janeiro, beaches have been busy since August, where mask use has been low. The city’s idyllic sands were packed on the national September 7 holiday.

Meanwhile, with this tentative return of leisure, neither country has made any significant progress on establishing specific protocols for educational facilities to resume their in-person activities without jeopardizing the safety of students and their families. With little scientific information available on the effect of opening schools on the Covid-19 contagion curve — and the proximity of municipal elections in Brazil — the debate on opening schools is defined by the fear of families, opposition from teachers, and political calculations from politicians.

While they appear to be in the same boat, the neighboring countries have approached the issue in different ways, with a sudden change to distance learning.

Like in Brazil, the public education system in Argentina is mostly provincial, depending on local governments. But while Argentina’s Ministry of Education took the lead in putting forward guidelines to continue the school year, its counterparts in Brazil washed their hands of the problem, placing all of the responsibility on individual state administrations to work out their own rules.

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