Edy Pinto, Secretary of the Association of Educators of San Miguelito, said he was "dismayed" by how the Ministry of Health (Minsa) decided to reduce the distance in schools.

"We are dismayed with the high degree of improvisation ... we are under the Decrees that establish various measures, all related to the issue of distancing, and if the schools comply with all that and the levels of contagion are minimal, we have no problem in start," said the teacher leader.

The educators insist that they do not oppose the return, however they list a series of requests to return to the classroom.

"The issue is that not all of us are going to start immediately. I don't understand what is the plight of Meduca and the businessmen of starting the school year with ugly schools, without water, and without alcohol and gel devices," Pinto said.

For his part, the teacher leader Humberto Montero, mentioned that the return must be progressive, gradual and flexible from the classes; and he clarified that they are not opposed to the anticovid vaccination, but he considers that "the blended presence of a school with 20 students is not the same as that of a school with a thousand students or more." For him, going to educational centers would be to paralyze the learning process that is currently taking place.

Meduca announced that from yesterday it will begin the return of teachers to educational centers, nationwide, so that the personnel who were not physically in the schools will have to return and generate the processes from the institutions.

"It is not a massive return of teachers or students to schools", but a necessary measure to plan strategies in an eventual restart of blended classes.

Panama has been teaching only distance classes for almost two years. Tutorials began in March of this year and blended classes in May in a few schools, however dozens of students do not have mobile devices or internet access.