Almost 10 million students return to schools in Colombia

About 10 million students gradually return to schools in Colombia starting this Monday, amid a wave of covid-19 infections due to the omicron variant.

"The start of the 2022 academic calendar will be with full presence and without restriction of capacity in educational establishments," the Ministry of Education said in a statement.

Some 9.9 million students from public and private schools are called to resume face-to-face classes and a vaccination certificate will not be required, said the head of the portfolio, María Victoria Angulo, on Blu Radio.

The measure contrasts with the one adopted for entry to massive events, as well as to bars, restaurants, museums, among other places, where the document proving the complete vaccination schedule is mandatory.

Angulo justified the elimination of that requirement for schools, arguing that "education is an essential service" and the government cannot restrict it for "no reason."

Colombia registered a record of covid-19 infections on Saturday in almost two years of the pandemic with a report of more than 35,000 cases in one day.

Omicron, the most contagious variant of covid-19, is dominant in the country according to the Ministry of Health.

"Teachers are already in public schools, although positive colleagues with Covid-19 who remain isolated are reported to us. The serious thing about the fourth peak is that the government calls for face-to-face attendance but has not taken a single measure in the face of the variant," he said in his account on the Twitter network Fecode, the most important teachers' union.

In 2021, the children studied under a model that alternated virtual and face-to-face classes, but the remote schools showed connectivity problems.