Thousands of Panamanian public school students returned to class on Monday, after teachers’ unions reached an agreement with the Ministry of Education to end more than a month of strike, which reached some 800,000 students, to lobby against the contractual law between the State and Minera Panamá, a subsidiary of the Canadian company First Quantum Minerals (FQM).

“For us it is very important to see these images (…) of how schools are coming back to life with students (…). We recognize the social balance that teachers’ unions represent, even in the different struggles and achievements throughout history.”, Deputy Academic Minister of Education, Ariel Rodríguez, told TVN.

He added that “however, we are finishing a school year and for us the call to return to class and return students to class was fundamental.”

On Monday morning, formal sector students were seen arriving at schools across the country, after more than a month without classes because teachers’ unions were on strike in support of protests against the contract law that was renewing the concession to the Canadian mining company. and which was already declared unconstitutional on November 28 by the Supreme Court of Justice of Panama.

Last Saturday, teachers and the Ministry of Education reached an agreement ending the strike that began on October 23. Teachers have committed to returning to educational centers from this Monday until December 29, the end of the school year. Those working in hard-to-reach areas will do so gradually, according to the official statement.

The agreement also provides for “the full return of withheld salaries to educators”, a step taken by authorities to pressure them to return to classrooms, and teachers’ unions will be included “as ‘observers in the orderly closure process’. of the mine”, according to the Ministry of Education.

“I’m happy, I missed them (the students), but I was fighting for a just and necessary cause, which was to get the mining company out of Panama (…). I was fighting for them in the street while tomorrow they will be able to enjoy nature,” teacher Miriam de Vázquez told EFE on Monday from a school in the populous San Miguelito neighborhood on the outskirts of the Panamanian capital.

Among the priorities of Panamanian authorities and teachers are the recovery of educational content lost due to the strike as well as the possibility for students to move on to the next course.

The 2023 school calendar for official and private schools in Panama runs from March 6 to December 22, 2023. However, due to protests, it was interrupted in public schools while private schools continued to teach, relying on virtual mode for certain days.