40% of students return to school this week

The Undersecretary of Education has called on Chaitén parents to return to the cities where they registered their children, since the town lacks the minimum infrastructure needed to offer educational services.

SANTIAGO. -  For 40% of students -91 thousand pupils- in the Greater Santiago area, summer vacation will come to an end by Friday of this week at the latest.  The day is one week before the official start of the school year and there are eleven schools that are even starting classes today.

“Some 1,209 will gradually start classes this week, from now until this Friday”, the Undersecretary of Education, Cristián Martínez, told Radio Cooperativa.

The authority also stated that the first schools to begin their year will be the private or privately-funded establishments, since the official start to the year has been planned for March 4th.

Martínez explained that the early start to classes is due to the fact that the schools have planned a gradual initiation of courses “to prevent all students from starting at the same time and jamming public transportation”.

With regards to the situation of schools such as the Instituto Nacional, which are currently being repaired and will not open for classes until April, Martínez indicated that of the 1,072 renovation projects, 80% have already been completed.