And while those CXC exams have been rescheduled, what about schools in general? Is there any plan to re-open? Or any consideration of what might be the way forward when schools do re-open?
Faber today said he is not yet ready to scrap the current school year which should have ended in June:
Jules Vasquez, reporter
"Is there a plan that the ministry has for working on the continuity of schools for getting students back into the classrooms with management protocols in place to assure everyone's safety?"
Hon. Patrick Faber, Minister of Education
"I am still not comfortable and at the point where I can say that in fact we will not resume classes in this current school year and again, we continue to take advice from the health officials, the kind of situation that would exist putting students back in a classroom 30-40 in some instances where it is really bad, children in a classroom without proper planning for social distancing and sanitizing. Even if we were allowed the number of weeks remaining in the school year to do that could spell a disaster and so we have to listen to the health authorities. I quite honestly prefer for us to continue along the path which we are continuing on now which is to ensure that students are receiving as best as possible a high as possible quality of home-based learning until we are that position where we are absolutely comfortable to say we will go back in the classroom with a new normal with changes that would probably see our students really using masks or gloves and the administrations of schools understanding they have to properly sanitized the learning environment. It may need for us to say okay some students will go in the morning, some in the afternoon - that kind of change we are contemplating now, but nothing is final as yet."
Email
Print