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“The return to classes is a state decision” says Secretary of Education after AMLO announces a return within 20 days

Cancun, Q.R. — “Returning to face-to-face classes will be a state decision,” said Ana Isabel Vázquez Jiménez, Secretary of Education for Quintana Roo. Her statement was followed up by comments from the Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (SNTE) who also say the state is not yet ready to return to classes.

The comments were made Wednesday after President Andrés Manuel López Obrador anticipated the state would return to classes the within a period of 20 days. AMLO made the comment Tuesday during a press conference saying with the vaccination of Quintana Roo teachers, the state will return to face-to-face classes within 20 days.

His comment was made during a time when the state grabbles with the possible return to a red epidemiological light.

“It will be a consensual decision, the state governor, with us, the authorities, the unions and, above all, the fathers and mothers of the family,” explained Vázquez Jiménez, adding that it will have to be a decision also analyzed with the State Health Council.

“We cannot have a date for back to school now,” she said pointing out that the state needs to wait for the epidemiological light to change.

“We have already started the rehabilitation and the cleaning. We were waiting for these vaccination days so that the administrative staff can go back to clean and rehabilitate the classrooms,” she explained.

However, during his Tuesday press conference, AMLO stated “already in Quintana Roo the vaccination of older adults has been completed and people between 50 and 59 years of age are being vaccinated. Now, to all the teachers, both from public schools and private schools so that they can return to classes soon, in 15, 20 days maximum, to return to face-to-face classes in Quintana Roo,” he said.

Yesterday, the state leader of the National Union of Education Workers (SNTE) also ruled out a return to face-to-face classes in the short term.