The Consell de Formentera has handed out cards enabling a telephone-based internet connection to pupils who need the digital resource to continue their studies. Thirty-two families responded to a related offer by the local social welfare office to request the service. With Formentera’s Department of New Technologies overseeing logistics, the Vodafone telecom company donated 50 connection cards facilitating free internet access to school children. To request one of the remaining 18 cards still available, islanders are encouraged to send an email to benestarsocial@conselldeformentera.cat or telephone 971 32 12 71.

The Consell also helped deliver computers and other digital equipment to schools where pupils without a home internet connection were given the chance to request the material on loan. Meanwhile, the education office proposed guidance to families that opted for the service. The aim of the initiatives is to give pupils a way to follow classes online while the Covid-19 crisis prevents a return to the classroom. The Consell de Formentera wishes to applaud the work of the Civil Protection volunteers responsible for distribution.

26 May 2020
Department of Communications
Consell de Formentera

The Formentera Department of Education reports that the nurseries Sa Miranda and Camí Vell will reopen between 8 and 15 June. The escoletes will open at 50% capacity, with space for 54 of the typical 108 children enrolled. Priority will go to children of parents for whom balancing work and childcare is problematic, households facing increased risk of social and economic hardship and families in which children are receiving special protective attention.

Phone calls will be going out in the days ahead to assess the situations of individual families and determine which children will be among those returning to class this spring. Families of children who stay home need not pay any fees, and spots will be guaranteed for the coming school year. According to education consellera Susana Labrador, in recent weeks the Consell de Formentera has been working with the Govern balear to ensure the return to classrooms is safe for children and educators alike, and that the latest ministerial orders allow for just that. Labrador additionally indicated that safety protocols at the nurseries were now being fine-tuned.

“Confinement was more difficult for children, and we know how hard it’s been on families trying to juggle a job and childcare”, said Labrador. “Being able to open this educational meeting place—so crucial to a return to normal for adults and kids alike—is among the administration’s top priorities.”

Classrooms will reopen in line with safety and hygiene protocol: educators will wear masks, for example—“we know the two-metre rule won’t be feasible with little ones”, explained the consellera. Children will take turns in the patio area, open-air activities will be encouraged and the adjusted instructor-pupil ratio will enable teachers to adapt educational activities to the Covid-19 situation.

26 May 2020
Department of Communications
Consell de Formentera