Two weeks after schools reopen over 20 close doors

Sep 22, 2021 News

Kaieteur News – Minister of Education (MoE), Priya Manickchand, while speaking to this publication, confirmed that less than two weeks after reopening for face-to-face delivery of education, more than 20 nursery and primary schools across Guyana have been forced to temporarily shut their doors. This is due to positive COVID-19 diagnosis of several students, teachers and permanent.

Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand.

On Wednesday last during an event at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC), Minister Manickchand had stated “We reopened schools last week, and unfortunately we’ve had to close 17 in one week.”
Minister Manickchand, while speaking at the event, further noted that every country in the world that has reopened schools has had to deal with similar issues.
Nonetheless, the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU’)s, General Secretary, Coretta McDonald, has questioned whether it is evident to the Education Minister that appropriate planning and consideration had not been put into the reopening of schools.
“There might be many more across the country, because we’ve not gotten the full report from the hinterland region, as yet,” McDonald added.
McDonald stated that there was a previous agreement with the MoE for the use of a 30-point document which would be used as a checklist for the MoE and the uion’s oversight body to guarantee that each school was prepared for reopening.

Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) General Secretary, Coretta McDonald.

McDonald further explained that the activity had commenced on August 23, 2021, and later that day, the Union saw via the MoE’s Facebook page that schools were to be reopened on September 6, 2021.“We questioned that because we said we’ve not been out there as yet, we don’t know what’s happening in schools and our concern was always and will always continue to be the safety of our students, our pupils, and our teachers and, by extension, the communities in which those schools are located,” McDonald said.
“GTU questioned this, we got no response from the Ministry of Education and we pulled our oversight body off of that activity,” McDonald, also added.
There was a plan for the activity to be completed in two weeks, and an agreement that if the required facilities were not in place, the reopening of schools would need to be done on a phased basis, or continued virtually, while systems are put in place.
On September 6, 41 of Guyana’s 348 nursery schools opened their doors for face-to-face learning for students. Nevertheless, 307 were to operate on a rotation system.
Also 44 primary schools reopened fully and based on the availability of space, an additional 413 were expected to operate on a rotational basis. Grade Six students, however, were to attend school daily.
Meanwhile, several secondary school students will begin attending face-to-face classes at a later date. This will be based on whether students are fully COVID-19 vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine.
In videos that have surfaced on social media, some teachers from several schools in different parts of the country have complained about the absence of running water, dead rodents and more affecting the smooth recommencement of schools. Several of these issues are being or have since been addressed by the Education Ministry.

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