Schools will reopen on September 6 in Guyana
The Ministry of Education in Guyana has announced that schools will reopen for face-to-face learning on September 6.
During a press conference on Friday, Education Minister Priya Manickchand said the disruption of the school system, due to the pandemic, over the last year would have a lasting impact on students.
Manickchand said the Ministry of Health has mandated that all COVID-19 preventative measures, such as mask-wearing, social distancing, and handwashing be observed. She also said that some schools would reopen on a rotational basis to adhere to these guidelines.
“The longer we stay out of school, the more likely we are to suffer from severe learning loss and premature school leaving…what it means is that there is a severe loss of the learning that children would have acquired, children who knew certain concepts will forget them, children who have acquired certain skills will not use those skills, and the longer we stay out of school, the more exacerbated that will become."
“Reopening will look very different than it did in September 2019, for the 2019-2020 year, and reopening will look differently for different schools that have different levels, it may look different even for the same levels, the same nursery in the same region. So, one nursery school may open one way and another open another way,” she said.
Chief Education Officer Dr Marcel Hutson said 44 primary schools across the country would reopen fully for face-to-face learning.
“That is fundamentally based on space. They could accommodate our children, observe the COVID-19 protocols, so another 413, which would include 9 annexes, will be operating on a rotational basis.”
He further noted that for Grade Six, given that it is an examination class, students will attend school almost daily, while secondary schools will reopen with individual plans.
Meanwhile, Assistant Chief Education Officer (Nursery) Samantha Williams said 41 of 348 nursery schools would reopen to face-to-face learning while the other 307 would reopen on a rotational basis. She said educational engagement in the early years is crucial to a child’s development.
“The nursey education sector is pleased to announce the return to schools for our nursery aged children in safe, protective, and conducive spaces. The importance of our return for our babies is embedded in the psychology of learning.”
She explained that five students would be assigned to each teacher to allow for better management of each. Additionally, teachers are expected to engage nursery school students no less than two hours per day and four hours per week.
To ensure that COVID-19 preventative measures are observed and limit contact, learning packages including crayons, pencils, building blocks, and other learning materials have been prepared for distribution, which students will take along with them whenever they go to school.
0 Comment