The "Strike for Life" takes place against the resumption of classes in Brazil. (Photo: teleSUR)

Brasilia, February 12 (RHC)-- Teachers and other municipal education workers in São Paulo, Brazil, have been staging a "caravan for life" since Wednesday, in the midst of their strike in protest against what they call the unsafe return to face-to-face classes in conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The director of the Union of Teachers and Municipal Employees of São Paulo (Aprofem), Paulo Soares da Rocha, while placing a wreath in front of the local city hall, in an act called "For a school without mourning", said: "The intentions of this face-to-face return have nothing to do with the quality of teaching, that the child is in school, eating.  There are dark interests behind this.  I would like to know if the secretary of education, the mayor and the governor of San Pablo had children in public schools, would they be reopened?"

Teachers do not accept returning to face-to-face classes without effective security conditions, widespread vaccination and pandemic control. They denounce that schools are not fully adapted to operate under the conditions required by the Covid-19 epidemic. According to the union, school premises are poorly ventilated, there are few toilets in schools and educators have not received sufficient personal protective equipment. 

They also complain about the fact that the complementary structure for distance education has not been completed, such as the distribution of tablets and the installation of digital classrooms.

The teachers' strike is to demand the maintenance of distance education in all schools, the distribution of tablets to students, priority in the vaccination of education professionals, acquisition of more vaccines with resources that the municipal government, massive virus detection tests and maintain control of the disease, quality personal protective equipment in sufficient quantity and social support for the families of children of high school students.