Schools will remain closed to face-to-face learning this month and while the Education Ministry is eying the possible resumption of in-school learning after the Easter Holiday, the decision would ultimately rest on further advice from the Ministry of Health on the success of its ongoing COVID-19 immunisation campaign.
In a recent update posted on the ministry’s Facebook page, Minister of Education Priya Manickchand said learners will continue to be engaged through the blended approach initiated last September.
She noted that the decision to keep students, with the exception of those in Grades 10, 11 and 12, out of classrooms was based on advice from the Ministry of Health and corresponds with universal recommendations.
Manickchand acknowledged that the ministry is aware of the risks that staying out of face-to-face learning will have on learners’ education as she noted research that suggests that the longer schools remain closed, the more disadvantaged students will be. In fact, she said the ministry is “deeply concerned” that even after COVID is contained, there would be long-term problems due to the effects of the disruption in learning.
However, she also said the government has to balance its efforts at minimizing the impact with its duty to keep students and teachers safe.
Looking ahead, Manickchand said the ministry has been advised that once the COVID-19 vaccination plan by the Ministry of Health is successfully rolled out, the Ministry of Education will receive further advice on the way forward.
“Once that goes smoothly and as planned we anticipate that we’re going to be able to reopen schools sometime after the Easter holiday,” Manickchand said.
Health Minister Dr. Frank Anthony during the daily COVID-19 update last Wednesday said that teachers are the next frontline workers who would be immunized after health care workers and the elderly. “We have started with our frontline workers, we want to complete with the frontline health workers and then we go on to the next category which is elder people,” Dr. Anthony said. He then said that teachers are next in line for frontline workers. “As another group of persons working on the frontlines, would of course be the teachers. They would interface with students and so forth, while there is still some classroom interaction. So we want to start working with the Ministry of Education to immunize teachers as well as other categories of frontline workers,” he added.
When the new school year started last September, the Education Ministry announced a blended approach where it distributed print material to students across the country as well as broadcast educational programmes on the Guyana Learning Channel. The distribution of devices and work tools has also been rolled out for students to connect in their virtual classrooms. In November of last year Manickchand announced that following a Cabinet decision, schools were allowed to reopen for face-to-face engagements for the cohort of students in grades 10, 11, 12 as well as for all Practical Instruction Centres (PICs) and Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) Centres. The schools were allowed to decide on how the classes would be carried out with consideration to COVID-19 guidelines which were enforced.
