Coronavirus

Brazil’s return to classes clouded by fear and uncertainty

Uncertainty

With the Covid-19 pandemic showing no sign of immediate improvement in Brazil, the return to in-person schooling in states across the country is accompanied by feelings of fear and uncertainty, as experts warn of the dangers of contagion and parents and teachers protest the return. After more than 130 days without classes, we have listed the plans drawn up by each of Brazil’s 27 states:

  • Acre. Initially planned to return in September, the state announced yesterday it will be postponing the return to in-person education until 2021, as reported by G1. The coming term will be exclusively online.
  • Alagoas. The state government said in-person classes will be among the last activities to return, as part of its final stage of gradual reopening. The authority did not divulge an estimated date for schools to return. 
  • Amapá. The state has no expected date to return to classes, as G1 reported on Friday. Governor Waldez Goés (PDT) said in-person education will be one of the last activities to return.
  • Amazonas. In state capital Manaus, in-person classes will restart on August 10 for older students and two weeks later for middle-school students, according to O Estado de S. Paulo. Classes will return in a hybrid system, with in-person and online activities working simultaneously. The government has yet to define a return date for schools in other regions of the state. Private schools reopened activities at the beginning of July using a rotation system, by which classes alternate between distance learning and in-person teaching.
  • Bahia. The state has not defined a date to return to in-person classes, but the government has announced that when they do restart, extra classes will take place on Saturdays and there will be no holidays in December, according to UOL. The state is also conducting tests with students in different municipalities. 
  • Ceará. Schools in Ceará, both public and private, will have mass testing for students, according to the state’s Health Secretary, in an interview to TV Globo this...

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