Face-to-face classes are being reconsidered due to the Delta variant in Jamaica
Minister of Education Fayval Williams said preparations for the resuming of face-to-face lessons next month.
“This is new news for us, so we will have to recalibrate, to look again, to speak with the Ministry of Health and Wellness, to be able to advise our Jamaican parents ..what the dates are that we will be looking at for schools in a face-to-face environment,” the education minister said.
“We have announced that ...the first teaching day is Monday, September 6, 202 and that we will be the beginning school in the online mode,” Williams said while was speaking to the media following her address on the final day of the 57th annual conference of the Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA) at Ocean Coral Spring Resort in Trelawny yesterday.
She said the ministries of education and health and wellness would today discuss the latest turn of events and the availability of the Pfizer vaccine, which can be administered to children 12 years and older.
“We will be getting the Pfizer vaccine; those can be taken by children 12 years and older, and so we are going to begin that program over the weekend to get as many of our children vaccinated as possible,” Williams explained.
She also announced that the Government would shortly be embarking on a massive public education campaign.
“We are going to focus all our efforts now on rolling out our campaign across social media, across the traditional media, to get the information out there to let parents know of the new development in terms of the vaccines for the children that we will have...That is our focus right now,” Williams said.
Newly installed JTA President Winston Smith noted that nearly 70 percent of teachers, including himself, have already been vaccinated.
“Our records show that upward of 68 percent of the teaching population would have been vaccinated. In our discussion with the minister [of education], we pointed out that, apart from just teachers, other persons work within the school sector, we need to have them vaccinated. She has assured us that those persons will become part of that priority group when the next roll-out takes place,” Smith said.
He also expressed confidence that, based on the teachers' response to Dr Peter Figueroa's presentation during the conference on Tuesday, a larger percentage of educators will be willing to take the jab during the next vaccine blitz.
“We still assert, though, that the JTA encourages all teachers, all personnel within the ambit of the school system in Jamaica, to go and get vaccinated. However, we are not going to say....and I don't think the Ministry of Education is forcing anybody at this time,” Williams started.
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