Dear Editor,
Public secondary schools across the country are not operating as normal (pre-pandemic system). In many, students from Grades 7, 8 and in some cases 9 are at home where they are receiving online classes. In addition, due to the implementation of a rotation system and other administrative decisions, possibly made by head teachers and/or education officials, some subjects have been removed from the timetable, given the present situation. As for other subjects, the number of periods per class has been reduced. However, schools are outfitted with a staff to cater for normal teaching days where all students are required to be at school.
While the Ministry of Education has implemented measures to safeguard the health of school children, what about the health of teachers? At the public school where I teach, and I’m sure in many others, teachers are required to be in school, regardless of whether they have scheduled classes or not. For many, their students are at home and they are sitting for 6 hours straight basically doing nothing of importance in the school building. The role of a teacher is to teach, if the students are not in school or the teachers do not have any timetabled classes, what is the point of having them sitting in a chair for many hours by themselves? Not only is this physically unhealthy, but mentally as well. It is equivalent to punishment, often misbehaving children are put to sit by themselves in a corner and reflect on their bad conduct.
Another issue is the lack of social distancing; many schools do not have staff rooms and the ones that have were not constructed with social distancing in mind. So, you will find teachers who are not timetabled to teach, huddled together in corners, or sitting in very close proximity to each other in small staff rooms. However, the most serious issue is the mixing of the vaccinated and unvaccinated. At the school where I teach, nobody is required to show a vaccination card to gain entry to the school, and this includes teachers and visitors. Is this a way to develop herd immunity? Basically, teachers without any timetabled classes to teach in the school building are required to sit all day in a chair and possibly be exposed to COVID-19 for nothing of importance. Some teachers become so bored that they gather in groups, remove their masks and chat endlessly but can they be blamed? Humans are social creatures and teachers are accustom to being active, not sitting down doing nothing, but walking around in a classroom and interacting with the children.
The Ministry of Education should either reopen secondary schools to all students, or if it continues with the present system, should implement measures to stop the spread of COVID-19 among teachers. They can unknowingly pass the virus to students and their families. I was under the impression that public health officials advised persons to refrain from unnecessary gatherings and activities in an effort to limit the spread of the virus. Is having vaccinated and unvaccinated teachers without scheduled classes in the school building, sitting all day chatting without masks on, or sitting alone for hours which affects mental and physical wellbeing, so important and necessary even with the threat of COVID-19 infection everywhere?
Sincerely,
Concerned teacher
