Minister of Education Priya Manikchand has announced that dorm students at public schools must be re-tested before returning for the second term.
In an interview last Thursday with the Department of Public Information (DPI), Manickchand said the second school term will follow similar protocols as seen in the previous term. Specifically for dorm students, she said “it’s going to be a little bit different for the dorms, again, because we have to, again, determine that nobody is coming into the dorms with an infection or with a positive COVID result.”
A Ministry of Health spokesperson told this newspaper that the testing has started.
Schools will be reopening tomorrow.
Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony has explained to the DPI that he and Manickchand have had a very detailed meeting concerning the safety of persons returning to school. As a result, each Regional Health Officer and the Regional Education Officer have met and come up with plans for the regions, the minister informed. Additionally, Dr Anthony said that the Health Ministry has sent out enough antigen and Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) testing kits to the regions for all students to be tested.
As for the remaining students, Manickchand said that they will return to the means of learning done for the Christmas term. She said that the three classes heading back to school will remain the only students permitted to return to physical classrooms as needed. Meanwhile, the other levels will return to learning whether through virtual classrooms, radio/ television or worksheets. “However children learned in this last term, the Christmas term, would be what they reopen for in January. So if in the Christmas term teachers were teaching from WhatsApp for grade five and grade six and grade three, then on the 4th [January] we expect teachers to begin teaching on WhatsApp again and parents to have their children ready for that,” the Education Minister told the DPI.
She also reminded that as much as the ministries are trying to ensure persons are following COVID-19 measures, the task is upon each individual to maintain the responsibility of staying safe.
