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The Minister of Universities, Manuel Castells, has described as a "suggestion" the recommendation that next year the face-to-face classes be alternated with the telematic ones to avoid crowds in the faculties, but he warns the universities that they will have to look for alternatives to maintain the social distance of students within the classroom.

"If not, look for a solution, because having more people than can fit in a meter and a half can not be done, and there is no more history than this," he sentenced this Monday in an appearance in the Senate where he explained the general lines of its Ministry and the management of the coronavirus health crisis that forced the closure of universities throughout Spain.

On June 11, the department of Castells sent the universities a document prepared together with the Ministry of Health with recommendations "to adapt the 2020-2021 university course to an adapted classroom setting", and where it proposed to alternate face-to-face and online teaching 'when the number of students does not allow keeping a meter and a half of safety distance in classrooms and facilities.

"In this option, they should rotate periodically between students who receive the teaching in person and those who receive it by videoconference," added the document from the Ministry of Universities.

In his appearance in the Senate, Castells, who for decades has been a university professor, has defended face-to-face teaching as the best teaching model. "Touching the students is going very well," he joked before stating that "virtual education is a wonder of 35 years and up, when you already have another training."

However, the minister has taken it for granted that in the autumn there will be a second wave of coronaviruses. "We have to live dangerously until there is no vaccine, and the question is how we will be prepared for that second wave," he explained to justify that during the next academic year some type of distance learning must be made compatible.

"Face-to-face is still the good thing, but there is 'online' teaching that can be very good, and since we have accumulated a lot of experience, let's prepare ourselves to do better, so that the university can function 'online' with quality," he argued, stressing that "everything that can be done in person is going to be done", although he considers that "a modern university cannot live without a digital nerve".

In this scenario, Castells has valued the 400 million that the Government will distribute among the autonomous communities to face the adaptation of the next course to the pandemic, and which can be used, in the opinion of the minister, for "digitization strategies" such as " improvements to computer equipment and telematic networks, teacher training and help from the university administration for adequate connectivity for the entire student body, so that no student is discriminated against due to the digital divide, "they list from universities.

The possibility that next year they will have to alternate face-to-face and 'online' teaching, what the Ministry of Universities calls "adapted face-to-face", has monopolized part of the interventions of a very long session of the Senate Commission on Science, Innovation and Universities , which has lasted almost eight hours.

The PP senator Jesús Vázquez has been against the opinion of Castells on the digitization of the university. In his opinion, "things have to be changed" but face-to-face education should be paramount and he does not see the need to change the "system" in this sense. The representatives of ERC and PNV have also referred to digitization.

The Catalan senator Adelina Escandel, also defends the need to maintain the attendance of the students, since, in addition to knowledge, she has defended the university as a place of debate in classes and in the cafeteria and hallways.

His Basque counterpart, María Rosa Peral, has called to differentiate between digitization from the university and online learning as an option for people who cannot temporarily or fully access classroom teaching.

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  • Senate
  • Manuel Castells
  • PP
  • PNV
  • Spain
  • ERC
  • Coronavirus
  • Covid 19

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