The reopening of schools is a disaster in the making

Aug 25, 2021 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Kaieteur News – Schools reopen on September 6, 2021. However, how many students will be turning out on that day? Parents are bound to be concerned about the untimely reopening. They are bound to be concerned as to the basis of the decision to reopen schools when the pandemic is far from under control.
Any decision to reopen schools has to be based on standard of measurement. The government cannot simply decide to reopen schools because it feels that it is time to do so. The state of the pandemic – including the growth of new cases, the number of deaths and the number of active cases – ought to be the principal deciding factor in the decision to reopen schools.
But what is the state of the pandemic? Guyana has had a recent spike in cases. The rate of growth of new cases has been increasing over the past two weeks. There has been an average increase of 20 percent in new cases over the period August 10 to August 23, 2021.
In that 14-day period, a daily average of 92 persons tested positive for the coronavirus. The daily average for the month of August is 77, inclusive of the last two weeks. For the period 1st August to 9th August, the daily average was 52 cases per day. This means that the average number of cases has almost doubled since the end of the first week of August. This is the scenario in which our enlightened Ministry of Education is reopening schools on 6th August.
There have been 33 coronavirus deaths reported over the past 14 days. For the first 10 days of the month, there were only 13 deaths. This means that the past two weeks have seen a massive surge in deaths. This is the scenario in which our enlightened Ministry of Education is reopening schools.
The most critical measure which should be guiding the Ministry of Education is the number of active cases. On the 4th August, the number of active cases had fallen to 702. But over the remaining 19 days, the number of active cases began to rise again and as at August 23 had almost doubled to 1398. This is the scenario in which our enlightened Ministry of Education is reopening schools.
Schools were not reopened on 2nd January when there were 293 active cases. But a decision is being taken to reopen when the total number of active cases is approaching 1400. This is the scenario in which our enlightened Ministry of Education is reopening schools.
Parents should not send their children to school so long as the number of active cases is not below 600. The risk is way too high. It is well known that schools are super-spreaders of viruses. Once a virus enters a school environment, its rapid and widespread is guaranteed. In a matter of days, it turns into an epidemic.
But even more distraught is to learn that not all teachers have been vaccinated. It is downright irresponsible for teachers not to be vaccinated. No teacher should be standing in front of a classroom unless that teacher is vaccinated. No parent should send his or her child to school if the teacher or teachers who are supposed to be instructing that child is not vaccinated.
Guyana is courting disaster by reopening schools. The level of infections and active cases in society is way too high to allow for the reopening of schools. And once the virus gets into the school, the death toll will skyrocket because the students will take the virus home and infect their elderly relatives who are most vulnerable.
Teachers can hardly control the behaviour of students in the classroom. How will they control them when they leave the precincts of the school?
A few weeks ago, a massive group of students from one school in Georgetown celebrated the end of their CSEC examinations. After they had completed writing their final examination, they assembled at the Parade Ground. Most were either without masks or wearing their masks improperly. They had a whale of a celebration without any regard for social distancing or proper wearing of masks.
Imagine what is going to happen if schools reopen in an environment where infection levels are high. Yet, this is the scenario in which our enlightened Ministry of Education is reopening schools.
So what really is the metric – the standard of measurement – which the Ministry of Education is using to determine when to reopen schools? On the other hand, is this another instance of the government giving priority to expediency over safety?
Every Minister should be required to stand or fall on his or her decisions. If schools reopen and there are high levels of infections in schools, the Minister of Education should be asked to take responsibility for the consequences, good or bad.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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