Project 2018-2020 Dissemination Europe Day Opinion

Agrupamento de Escolas de Muralhas do Minho, Valença

ERASMUS+ | EU Programme for Education, Training, Youth and Sport

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And now what, Earth?

May 2020 · Beatriz Silva, 11.° C

In my opinion, this situation with this new virus will bring, in the very near future, many changes in several sectors such as tourism, education, the environment, investments in health, and in many other areas.

First, in terms of tourism, I think that people, after so much time limited to their nucleus of residence, will value much more what they have close to them and that for so long they have devalued. However, there is a great economic need to raise this sector so profitable for all countries of the world; for that same reason, I believe that countries will bet a lot on more short-range tourism as the local and national markets and not internationalize it because, in the future, people will become more cautious with what they do not know. Countries like Australia and New Zealand are thinking of a different solution and want to open up to tourism between themselves by creating a “travel corridor”. What these countries want is to trade with each other in order to revitalize tourism without opening up to the whole world yet.

The education sector had to readjust completely after schools around the world closed in situ classes. There were several difficulties to overcome, the main one was to ensure that all students were on an equal footing when it comes to computer resources. For example, in New York, about 300 thousand students did not have home access to computers or the internet. After solving this type of problem all over the world, I believe that distance learning has much more viability and that in the future it may perfectly be used more regularly. For example, when a teacher is unable to go to school for any reason, he can perfectly teach his classes through distance learning. Furthermore, after this “intensive computer course”, when teachers had to adapt to digital platforms, I believe that in the future face-to-face classes will be much more dynamic, due to the new computer knowledge they have acquired.

I conclude that the world we knew will change a lot, in all senses, since everything had to readjust and the population will probably adapt to these types of adjustments.

• • •

And now what, Earth?

May 2020 · Daniel Vaz, 11.° C

We are living in a new situation. A situation that no-one was expecting. The invasion of a threat: the coronavirus. This has affected 5,777,284 people in the world and this leads to a change in many aspects in of our daily lives. Now, we can’t walk without having fear and thoughts like: “Am I safe?” or “Will the world overcome this obstacle?”, thoughts of both the population and the professionals, because this situation affects many areas of society and social groups.

We all have some notion that our health system is good for most situations, but it isn’t prepared for big diseases like virus that could infect a lot of people, most of them completely unaware they are carrying or spreading it. The number of beds per 100,000 people is 340, which is a very low number for our population. Even so, I believe that, in the future, development of the medical structures, implementing more beds, and developing more defence vaccines will be a reality.

Schools will have some things done differently, too. Control and teaching systems are already being implemented in these structures, such as the use of masks in classroom; just the students with exams have lessons at school; and the implementation of distance learning. If schools were open for everyone, they would be an enormous centre of infection. So, the teaching system is one thing that is good for our younger population.

People certainly miss travelling, and that is another area that is affected. A lot of countries live with the money coming from tourism and now it is something that is missing. They had to learn how to live without one of the big economic sources, which, surprisingly, has been done successfully.

This pandemic does not bring bad things only. Our environment says thanks, because the sustainable levels have recovered so much that the hole in the ozone layer is already closed. Next step is to eradicate the pollution that, unfortunately, is ending up in the sea, even as we speak, which is more difficult to believe. An unbelievable number of masks and gloves were found on the coast of Hong Kong. They should be in the dustbins of non-recyclable waste.

Let us hope that all these issues, and many others, are improved and that this pandemic does not cause us more problems than those it already caused.

• • •

And now what, Earth?

May 2020 · Diana Silva, 11.° A

Humanity has faced a new, unknown and overwhelming threat, Covid-19.

Covid-19 is an infectious disease caused by a coronavirus and is transmitted through droplets that are generated when an infected individual coughs, sneezes or exhales. This virus appeared at the end of last year, between October and December, in China, but it quickly spread chaos all over the world! The pandemic has already killed 371,166 people as I’m writing this article.

However, this pandemic has also brought positive aspects to the current life that we know, including the environment. Once again it was revealed that the daily activity of human beings is 99% of the time harmful to the environment. Thus, during this quarantine period that we experience the air has become cleaner, and proof of this are the satellite images, which reveal a drop in the global levels of nitrogen dioxide and carbon dioxide. The wild animals returned to their ancestral territories that human beings later occupied. The oceans’ waters have become clearer and in addition, noise pollution in the oceans has decreased, helping to reduce the stress levels of marine animals.

After the initial shock, the first steps were taken in relation to schools and universities. In these cases, a new teaching method was introduced, with distance learning being an hypothesis considered in the near future for education.

In the labour sector, some changes have also been introduced. Factory workers have started to work with masks and gloves, restaurant and cafés’ opening hours have been reduced and more remote working is expected to be adopted.

Regarding the health sector, it is to be expected that after this pandemic hospitals will be better prepared if a similar situation occurs. This prediction is justified by the increase in the number of ventilators and materials in hospitals, it is possible that there is an increase in the number of health professionals in active service.

Concluding, Covid-19 is yet another opportunity for humanity to learn from its mistakes and if its behaviour does not evolve, all the sacrifices we’ve made will have been in vain.

• • •

And now what, Earth?

May 2020 · Sofia Neto, 11.° C

The covid-19 pandemic has made the world change “overnight” and more changes are coming.

Our life and habits have changed radically as we adapt to the rules imposed by the government and the precautionary measures for our own health.

For us students, this has been a very different experience. There were already forms of home schooling, but most of the students are used to studying at a school. With this health crisis, millions of schools and universities were closed and we started to attend classes from a screen.

The truth is that the adaptation was quite easy, but in the long run we will have to adopt new measures for the evaluation because the grades cannot be assigned correctly only on the basis of assignments. We would have to take tests online or create a new form of assessment that would allow to check the knowledge of students.

Not only have students’ schedules changed, but also working hours. Work schedules will change and will be more flexible, taking into account the needs of workers and their safety.

Teleworking will also be very present, especially in jobs that do not require manual work such as office jobs. For example, in the United States, distance teleworking is changing as a result of the coronavirus, changing how work gets done in federal, state, and local governments: for the first time the House of Representatives is permitting members to introduce bills and other documents electronically; some states are making provisions to convene and vote remotely. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have provided the use of telehealth services during the covid-19 emergency.

Illustrations: Ternium - Covid-19 Booklet Design on Behance

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” – Søren Kierkegaard