The Minister of Education stated this Monday, February 9, that “the vast majority” of schools affected by the bad weather have already reopened and that the others will reopen by Tuesday, with the exception of one in Leiria whose work will take two or three weeks.
Speaking to journalists in Braga, during the inauguration of two Specialized Technological Centers at Escola Secundária Sá de Miranda, Fernando Alexandre highlighted that “almost all” of the students had already taken classes last week.
“The schools that have not yet opened would practically all reopen today, some tomorrow [terça-feira], there is a school in Leiria which is a more complex situation, which is a large school and the intervention will take two, three weeks, but the company is already working there”, he said.
He also mentioned the case of the Vieira de Leiria Group, in Marinha Grande, whose roof was “completely torn off” but “from scratch” will be replaced on Tuesday.
The minister said that municipalities have been looking for alternative locations, such as libraries, so that classes can operate.
At stake are schools mainly in Leiria, Pombal and Marinha Grande, but also in other neighboring municipalities, which suffered considerable damage mainly from the Kristin depression, but some were also hit by last weekend’s floods.
“We have also carried out school-to-school monitoring with the electricity supply, which is one of the most problematic cases”, said Fernando Alexandre, ensuring that, in the cases of Leira, Pombal and Marinha Grande, this second Access to energy is already guaranteed in all schools, “either with energy from the grid or through generators”.
The governor admitted that, for now, there is no problem with learning recovery, because “there are not many days lost”, especially because many schools were on academic breaks.
“In this context, what is fundamental is to ensure that students return to school, and this is being done. And then, obviously, from the moment we return to normality, we will see the need for additional classes, for replacement classes and all this to ensure that, obviously, students, especially those who will be assessed in secondary education, are not harmed by this situation”, he added.
The ruler ruled out the possibility of online teachingespecially because, as he stressed, there would be no conditions for that.
“I have difficulty talking to some directors, I can only talk to one director when she goes up to the roof, almost, so we have an idea of what we are talking about”, he observed.
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