Confirming that schools will remain closed for the remainder of the current term, Minister of Education Priya Manickchand on Friday signalled that the resumption of face-to-face learning in September would likely hang on whether enough persons are vaccinated against COVID-19.
Manickchand made the announcement in a video uploaded to the Ministry of Education’s Facebook page. She said based on advice from the Ministry of Health, schools will remain closed for the remainder of the academic year, except for the levels which have already returned to classrooms.
Noting that at the start of the pandemic there was no cure or immunity and that the schools were closed to maintain social distancing, she said, “From then to now the world has developed a cure to the point where we know if people are vaccinated they will not die from COVID-19. We have also moved past a place where vaccines were not easily accessible.”
In addition, the Minister said that the government has made good effort and great investment in acquiring the requisite number of vaccines. “We expect that people are going to be responsible although we are not making vaccination mandatory. If persons are responsible in getting vaccinated and utilising the only scientific and medically proven way of bending the curve of the COVID-19 disease, then we can resume a state of relative normalcy. We expect, therefore, to be able to reopen schools in September 2021 to every grade level and we will work very hard to make sure that happens,” Manickchand said.
