COVID, vaccination and school reopening

Mar 02, 2021 Letters

Dear Editor,

I listened to the Education Minister’s message on 27/02/2021 on the reopening of schools. The Minister is banking on the possibility of opening schools in April 2021. This assumption is based on a vaccination drive starting in March 2021. Many developed countries have started their vaccination drive since December and three months after, schools have not fully reopened in those countries. I can personally attest to that because of relatives with children living in Florida and Canada. So if three months after a massive vaccine drive in those countries schools are mostly closed, why will it be okay to reopen in April in Guyana after a few have been vaccinated in March? Will the vaccines that will be delivered in March be adequate to inoculate the at risk and vulnerable? The Minister is talking about the effects of no classroom engagement on the nation’s children which is well understood. But what about the effects of contracting this deadly virus and taking it home where teachers and parents have elderly parents, young children and family members with comorbidities. I consider that far more dangerous at this point in time. Schools should be opened in September. By then, frontline workers, the elderly, persons with comorbidities and essential workers should be vaccinated. Secondly, the school year affected by the pandemic should be repeated. Additionally, as soon as the Grade 11 students are off to write the examination, the Grade 9 should be returned for face to face meeting and that level should continue through the July and August break. I am envisioning that the government is planning to vaccinate teachers but that will not solve the problem because the vaccine mostly protects from getting seriously ill and prevent hospitalization and death, it doesn’t stop one from being infected and passing on this virus. The Health Minister in one of his broadcasts alluded to that fact. Vaccinated teachers can still take home the virus and put their families at risk who have no access to vaccines. School children can take home the virus to their parents and grandparents. The at-risk categories, health workers, persons with comorbidities, along with essential workers, including teachers, must be vaccinated before there is any full reopening. Daily, its total madness as you see school children on the road and in buses without masks. The situation will only worsen when the full opening is initiated. Where will space be allotted in already crammed classrooms to ensure 6ft. separation? At the opening in November, the Ministry provided care packages with a few masks and a bottle of sanitizer. That was a one-time distribution. Teachers now have to find their own supplies and at the same time for the students just to ensure that health measures are enforced. I will be glad to see schools reopen, but it must be done only after the at risk and vulnerable groups have been vaccinated. The Minister of Health must ensure that is taken care of before our nations teachers and children are back in school.
Yours truly,
Name provided

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