Dear Editor,
I totally agree with the Ministry of Education when it said, “The reopening of schools to face-to-face engagement hinges heavily on the national vaccination programme. More of the adult population needs to be vaccinated to protect themselves and children, especially those who are below the age of 12 for whom no vaccine has been approved as yet. We urge all Guyanese to see the importance of receiving a COVID-19 vaccine and to consider the consequences that will come from not being vaccinated.”
The virus has had a devastating impact on the world affecting national economies, the production and supply chain, travel, and employment. A huge negative impact has been its devastation of our education process. As the Ministry rightly said, “The Education sector has been hit hard due to the pandemic and having to close schools as a response. However, the longer the school doors are closed the more our students will suffer from learning loss and the greater is the likelihood of an increase in school dropouts.”
We must learn from the mistakes and best practices of other countries. In the USA, for instance, in some areas, as soon as they opened schools, they had to close again because of teachers and students found to be infected. Here is a recent headline, “Covid-19 Cases Surge as Students Return to Schools.” Here is another, “Just a few days into the academic year, over 1,000 students in Palm Beach County, Florida, have been told to go into quarantine because of COVID-19 cases at their schools. The number of kids sent home grew from 440 on Wednesday to 1,020 on Friday, the district reported.”
The amount of work it takes to do contact tracing, testing, deep cleaning, and enforce quarantining is enormous. In Guyana where most people use public transportation to and from school, the risks of infection are extremely high. So, if only 25% of teachers are vaccinated, you can bet that if schools are open in September as the Ministry has decided, it will be a series of open-close, open-close. This will be a very draining, disruptive process on everyone, especially parents.
Our parents need to understand that online learning is a big challenge, and in Guyana where online access is unavailable or unreliable, poor rural and hinterland children will continue to be disadvantaged most. The Ministry does its best to distribute worksheets but that is not a substitute for regular face-to-face instruction and the interactive classroom processes. Parents are not teachers or home-schoolers. In the USA, a teacher who relies on worksheets as a strategy will get the lowest possible evaluation from an administrator. They want to see more engaging, hands-on, differentiated, customized methods.
In the best interests of the whole nation, the teachers and nurses must be role models in being vaccinated and encouraging vaccinations. Teachers and nurses are “key influencers” and nurturers. When resisting and hesitating patients don’t want to take medicines, tests or therapy, nurses are the ones to coax and persuade them “it won’t hurt, it’s good for you, if you want to get better.” The same with teachers who influence, motivate, and mould young minds. So we call on all teachers and nurses to step up at such a time as this. This is not about politics, it’s about our people and our national health and safety. The Government is eager to get back to normal and has to think about the interests of the whole country. Parents, please speak up now and support our teachers, nurses, and older students to get vaccinated. “All are involved, all are consumed.” The virus kills our loved ones, but vaccination saves lives!
Sincerely,
Dr. Jerry Jailall