Teachers who are returning to schools for face-to-face teaching will have to adhere to a memorandum released by the Ministry of Education’s Permanent Secretary which stipulates that they must be vaccinated or provide a negative PCR test result.
With schools reopening on Monday for face-to-face learning at nursery and primary levels, this newspaper was informed by an educator in Region One that teachers were not sent individual letters informing them of the strict vaccination measures. She explained that the teachers are instead, following a memorandum which was published last month, informing both teachers and other persons who engage the Ministry and its subvention agencies, of requirements regarding any business with the ministry.
The memorandum issued on August 9, states that all staff attached to the Ministry of Education (MoE) and its subvention agencies are urged to be vaccinated. A vaccination card along with proof of identification have to be provided. Further, any staff member who refuses to be vaccinated is required to provide a negative test result to the relevant head of department on a frequency determined by the ministry. The memorandum advised that the results will only be accepted from authorised private labs with the cost being covered by the staff member.
In addition, all vendors and contractors engaged with the ministry or subvention agencies of the MoE have to show their vaccination card and proof of identification, and all employees are required to have their vaccination card and proof of identification when at work. It is unclear how many teachers have been vaccinated, but according to the Ministry of Education, it is in the thousands.
A recent press release by the Ministry stated, “We take this opportunity to urge those teachers who have not yet taken a vaccine, to use this period, before the reopening of school to visit a vaccination site and be administered one of the available COVID-19 vaccines. The Ministry of Health currently has the AstraZeneca, Johnson and Johnson, Sinopharm and Sputnik V vaccines available for the adult population.” It further informed that if any teachers have questions on the vaccines or any related question, the MoE has solicited the assistance of three doctors to provide responses and they can be reached on telephone numbers: 650-2289 (Dr Farah December), 650-2308 (Dr Oneka Scott) and 650-2312 (Dr Ertenisa Hamilton).
Additionally, the release by the ministry emphasised that “teachers who do not report for duty will be marked absent. These measures also apply to the ancillary staff of each school (cleaners, administrative and other support staff). These measures will be captured in the next Gazetted Order for the new month.”
Meanwhile, the Guyana Teachers’ Union has maintained that it will stand beside its teachers. Immediately after the release was circulated, President of the GTU, Mark Lyte, took to his Facebook page to say that the union has withdrawn from participating with the ministry in conducting assessments of schools and all other planned engagements until the release was retracted.
Lyte had said, “Our teachers were good enough to teach NGSA, CSEC and CAPE, mark NGSA, attend workshops and even participate in school preparedness assessments… our members have called on us to act now in their best interest. We are not opposed to vaccination, but it MUST be voluntary.”
