Meet Few for Change Intern Margaux Petruska! Margaux is completing a “virtual internship” with the School for International Training (SIT), which includes working directly with an organization that operates in Panama. We are so lucky to have Margaux working with us! For her internship, Margaux is researching the educational access response in Panama and throughout Latin America. In this blog post, she reports on Panama’s response thus far, the challenges afforded by remote learning, and where things are headed as the 2021 Panamanian school year gets underway, providing FFC with new insight into our own future operations.

COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on indigenous and rural communities not only in health, but in access to education. Latin America and the Caribbean has felt much of the brunt of the impact with disconcerting statistics from UNICEF stating that over 97% of students were still out of the classrooms as of November 9th in Latin America and the Caribbean. This UNICEF study shows that since the beginning of the COVID pandemic, children in these regions have lost an average of four times more days of in person school comparatively to the rest of the world. This report details the undefined start dates for returning to schools in person, while the pressure in indigenous and rural populations to resume grows[1].

Another UNICEF report on the education response during the pandemic studied the most vulnerable children and the digital divide. Because many rural communities, specifically in the Comarca Ngäbe Buglé, don’t have access to technology or internet connection, distance education has been especially difficult. The scholarship recipients here at Few for Change are primarily submitting and obtaining their assignments through WhatsApp and may need to travel to other areas in order to get a connection or borrow a smartphone. Panamanian news outlet MiDiario reported an announcement by the Minister of Education, Maruja Gorday de Villalobos, who claimed that during the 2020 school year, 88% of all students in Panama utilized WhatsApp for classes[8]. In the past few months, the communities in Panama have been raising their voices and calling for blended classes following an announcement on January 10th by the Ministry of Education (MEDUCA) that remote learning would continue through the first quarter of the 2021 Panamanian school year[2]. RadioPanama recounts communities in the Comarca Ngäbe Bugle asking for blended classes during President Nito Cortizo’s visit to the Comarca. They stated they are willing to work with the model of blended classes because of the specific vulnerabilities of these communities, though nothing has changed yet in terms of offering in-person classes.

Photo above from RadioPanama: Students in the Comarcas prior to COVID-19 Pandemic learning in the Classroom.

While schools in the Comarca still haven’t returned to classes in person yet, there is hope in the works for better access to remote learning education. In the same article by RadioPanama, Braulio Palacio, the Regional Director of Education, described that broadband satellites would be installed in 84 educational centers benefitting 24,000 students in the communities of Mayo, Piedras Rojas, Trinchera, Cerro Otoe, and Cascabel. Additionally, the Ministry of Education planned to send 25,000 tablets to 12th-grade students universally in the country by March 15th[3]. With this information, there is also increasing public pressure surrounding the return to classes, not only in the Comarcas but all around Panama.

According to the Panamanian newspaper La Prensa, on March 5th there was a meeting of 19 national and international organizations calling for the safe reopening of schools because of the limited access to remote learning throughout the country. At this meeting there were representatives from the UN, UNICEF, Foundation for Promotion of Educational Excellence, and the President of Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture of Panama. The purpose of the meeting was to generate both a public debate and emphasize the need for swift action because of the vulnerability of many children that are not able to access their education, as well as the national nutrition programs that feed millions of students at school. They point out that the strategies MEDUCA has enacted to increase modes of education such as providing workbooks has been positive; however, there is still a large gap in options available to other students and they believe a gradual reopening is the most important issue currently[4]. Other organizations have already sent this message to the government, asking MEDUCA to launch a pilot plan to provide some in-person classes, but nothing has changed as of yet.

Following only about a week after the article on March 15th, La Prensa provided an update on the government’s response to the pressures they are facing, both inside and outside. La Prensa reports that the Minister of Health, Luis Sucre, says that the possibility of resuming face to face classes is currently being evaluated.

Pictured above from La Prensa: Minister of Health Luis Sucre in conversations about COVID and potential returns to school.

Potentially exciting news has been reported in the past few weeks regarding the possibility of returning to in person classes. The Ministry of Health (MINSA) reported it was having conversations with all government agencies relating to education and health to determine the possibility of opening schools for some in-person learning. The day before, La Prensa reported that Sucre met in person with Minister of Education Maruja Gorday de Villalobos. Sucre also shared that in addition to meeting with Gorday, he met with advisors from UNICEF, private schools, the advisor to COVID Research Consortium and the Panamanian National Secretary of Science, Technology and Innovation. They believe that a return to school buildings must be gradual in the form of cohorts in order to limit interactions between different groups of students and teachers, as well as staggering the return and having on/off days[5].

While this is great news and hopeful overall, in a concurring statement from MiDiario, President Cortizo signaled his hope for a return to classes in person sometime during the year, but said likely this wouldn’t occur until the nation’s 62,000 teachers are fully vaccinated[6]. This information potentially means that the return back to school is highly dependent on the ability of Panama to vaccinate their population in a rapid manner. Because of this, looking at the process and rollout of the vaccine in Panama provides more information about the timeline for vaccinating teachers.

According to The Bocas Breeze, Panama has signed off and committed $56 million of their vaccine program to utilizing the Pfizer Vaccine. The country is hoping to vaccinate around 2.9 million people in order to achieve 70% immunity, a target for herd immunity. The arrival and immediate distribution of the vaccine seemed to fall a bit behind schedule, but as of the 3rd of March, Panama was on schedule with the rollout and arrival of vaccines, and on March 4th they were entering phase 2A of their rollout plan as seen below[7].

Photo above taken from Ministerio De Salud’s Instagram showcasing the phasing plan for the rollout of the vaccine in Panama.

Currently Panama is still in phase 2A, and the good news is that teachers are being prioritized in the next phase, 2B. Panamanians from the indigenous Comarcas, including where Few for Change operates, and those who live in rural areas that are difficult to reach, will become eligible in phase 3A before the general public and other occupations. The first batch of Pfizer vaccines arrived on January 20th with the most recent, the sixth shipment arriving on March 15th with 63,180 doses. La Prensa has reported in the past two weeks that vaccine administration has ramped up in the most recent phase with over 20,000 people being vaccinated in 2 days in the Panama City suburbs. Additionally, MINSA released a new recommendation at their conference on March 9th, that people who have already had COVID should only receive one dose initially in order to help speed up the vaccination process; how accurate that is or how likely it is to occur remains to be seen. With the recent articles concerning the conversations and potential for school to reopen in person, there is hope that students will be able to continue their education in-person soon. As long as vaccines continue to be distributed and cases continue to go down, there may be hope for an earlier return to school than previously thought. COVID has put a strain on the educational experiences of the students of Few for Change, and they hope to return to classes in person soon.

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