progressive and safe return to the classroom and the right to education – In 2018 gigantic demonstrations took to the streets to defend the right of young people to get an education.

This right was being threatened by the significant decrease in resources by the State to public universities, and because a very mistaken policy wanted to transfer resources from public entities to private ones. As a result of these mobilizations, for the first time in history, the president sat down with the students and agreed to his claims: new and important resources arrived to reestablish the threatened right. Much remains to be done, but we must value what we are advancing as a society.

The pandemic generated by the coronavirus once again threatened the right to education of millions of children and young people. In Colombia and the world, face-to-face classrooms had to be closed and move to home modalities, but it happens that 66% of public school students in the country do not have a computer or connectivity. Likewise, Colombia is one of the few countries that does not distribute textbooks in its official schools. These children’s right to study is being violated and it is necessary for the national government to take measures to reestablish it. According to figures from the MEN, they have given computers to 1% of the children who did not have them. The government has not fulfilled its ethical and constitutional commitment to children and youth.

A group of important academics in the country have mobilized in networks requesting the opening of official schools immediately. It is true that face-to-face education has multiple advantages and that everything possible must be done to return to face-to-face classes as soon as possible. However, the epidemiological conditions of the main cities make it necessary to be cautious and make decisions with all the scientific support and taking into account the age and morbidity conditions of the teachers and the infrastructure of each of the institutions. There is no doubt that teachers who believe that vaccines should wait are not taking into account children’s right to life and education and this position should be openly rejected. Also that of teachers’ associations that ask for national solutions to an issue that must be resolved taking into account regional and local contexts. Therefore, I allow myself to formulate some ideas to defend the right to education, which, once again, is threatened again. The central idea is that we must guarantee safety, gradualness and a progressive return to face-to-face attendance.

The pandemic generated by the coronavirus once again threatened the right to education of millions of children and young people. In Colombia and the world, face-to-face classrooms had to be closed and move to home modalities, but it happens that 66% of public school students in the country do not have a computer or connectivity. Likewise, Colombia is one of the few countries that does not distribute textbooks in its official schools. These children's right to study is being violated and it is necessary for the national government to take measures to reestablish it.

First. It is a priority to have schools open in person in municipalities and localities where there are no viruses or where the number of infections is low. No one can defend that the right to education of these children and young people be violated because their right prevails over all others! Sumapaz, for example, only had 15 active cases of COVID in 2020. Nobody can explain why the 749 local students do not go to face-to-face classes, knowing at the same time that 90% of them do not have connectivity. There are hundreds of regions like Sumapaz in the country. Colombia is a country of regions and solutions must necessarily occur at the regional level.

Second. The first children who must return in person are those in initial and primary school. Not opening ICBF gardens has been a tragedy for 2.2 million boys and girls in the country; meanwhile, their diet has deteriorated, their cognitive, affective and emotional development has been retarded and their mothers have had three times the chance of becoming unemployed. For no reason can society allow them to stay home alone. Children of these ages do not have the reading level or sufficient autonomy to continue their educational process without the accompaniment of an adult. Likewise, studies indicate that the permanence of younger children at home has seriously increased depression, violence and mistreatment of minors. After all, we live in a society in which authoritarianism is very common. Living a confinement with an authoritarian father is a disgrace for a child. On the contrary, schools are places of protection for minors.

Third. We need most children to go to school every day to socialize, ask questions, explore the world, and learn about themselves and others. But since all students cannot be in schools at the same time, because social distancing would be impossible, we must demand that the State invest in connectivity. In the circumstances we live in, connectivity is part of the right to education. The national government insists on alternation, but it forgets one detail: without connectivity, alternation is not viable. If society really wants to restore the right to education, We need Congress to approve the bill presented by parliamentarians from various currents to guarantee connectivity for all young people from stratum 1 and 2 who are studying in high school and who still do not have access to cyberspace. Bogotá is close to achieving it. However, the process continues to progress slowly. It purchased tablets and connectivity for 106,000 of the 124,000 high school youth who lacked them. It must reach 100%, because the rights are for everyone and reduce the time provided for distributing them, but it has assumed the responsibility it has with the education of young people. 000 of the 124,000 young people in high school who lacked them. It must reach 100%, because the rights are for everyone and reduce the time provided for distributing them, but it has assumed the responsibility it has with the education of young people. 000 of the 124,000 young people in high school who lacked them. It must reach 100%, because the rights are for everyone and reduce the time provided for distributing them, but it has assumed the responsibility it has with the education of young people.

Children need their schools open in person to restore their right to education and their interactions. For this reason, at the same time that I join the initiative that seeks a return to face-to-face for children, I also join the initiative of those who demand internet for high school students and those who demand that biosafety conditions be guaranteed in all public schools in the country.

Fourth. Scientific studies show that the rates of contagion and transmission of the virus are very low in children under 12 years of age. Even so, they also get infected and die. That cannot be forgotten either. What we know is that the risk decreases significantly if distance is established and biosafety conditions are met. That is why the WHO and the European Union invite countries to take all necessary measures in order to guarantee the return of minors as soon as possible to face-to-face classes.

Fifth. A young person without internet and with a low-quality education has a very high risk of dropping out of school. That would be unfortunate for their development, since everything indicates that school desertion promotes teenage pregnancy, intensifies violence and delinquency, increases emotional instability, produces the frustration of thousands of dreams and, in the most serious cases, even suicide. We all know that desertion aggravates inequities because the first to drop out of school are students from the most vulnerable socioeconomic conditions, especially those who belong to strata 1 and 2.

I applaud the initiative of the academics who ask for attendance. Hopefully soon. However, it is never pertinent to consider only one aspect of the problem. That is why, at the same time, it is necessary to draw attention to the low investment in biosafety, location adaptations and connectivity, of the national government and local governments.

The pandemic has highlighted the serious inequities that we suffer as a society. Although the rulers have said the opposite, the Colombian State has had a very low historical investment in education, lower than the average for Latin America. We all know the serious difficulties of public schools to guarantee water, soap, face masks, sinks and distance. The monitoring of private schools in Bogotá and Cartagena allows us to conclude that the investment in adaptations and biosafety in this period has been about thirty times greater in private schools than in public ones. It is true that the MEN presents higher figures, even so, in doing so it includes some books, texts, computers and PAE, among others. The question is another: How much has been invested in adaptations and biosafety in each official school?

Children need their schools open in person to restore their right to education and their interactions. For this reason, at the same time that I join the initiative that seeks a return to face-to-face education for children, I also join the initiative of those who demand internet for high school students and those who demand that biosafety conditions be guaranteed in all public schools in the country: water, soap, mask and location adaptations that guarantee good ventilation. The responsibility belongs to everyone and we all have to do our part: teachers, the national government, regional governments, congressmen, councilors, mayors, governors and fathers and mothers. We are all co-responsible.