Back to school

SO now that the Ministry of Health and Medical Services supports the reopening of schools this week, our children are set to head back to the classrooms. Health Ministry permanent secretary Dr James Fong said they had consulted with the World Health Organization, and UNICEF reviewed all the evidence and taken into account Fiji’s situation.

The ministry, he insisted, would continue to monitor our community surveillance parameters and work with the Ministry of Education to facilitate the safe opening of schools.

This comes in the wake of the country’s two teachers’ unions calling for the Education Ministry to weigh its options carefully before reopening school.

The unions believe it would be impossible to maintain COVID-19 protocols in school.

On the international front, CNN reported on December 29 of a five-fold increase in pediatric admissions in New York City and close to double the numbers admitted in Washington, DC. Nationwide, it stated, on average, pediatric hospitalisations were up 48 per cent towards the end of December.

The highly transmissible Omicron variant, it reported, was teaming up with the busy holiday season to infect more children across the United States than ever before, and children’s hospitals were bracing for it to get even worse.

Back on the homefront, as we gear up to send our children back to school in the face of the rise in COVID-19 cases, we must remind ourselves about safety.

We look up to the powers that be, and Dr Fong and his team to make the tough calls. Safety, ultimately is paramount.

The safety and wellbeing of our children must sit on the highest pedestal. That will mean vigilance on the part of everyone in the school system.

Responsibility must be shared to safeguard our children when they get to school.

Clearly education is important. Our children have missed out on education in 2021. This is a period we cannot bring back.

Face-to-face education is important and is a critical element in the learning process.

There must be confidence in the systems in place though. Parents and guardians will insist on this.

To that end, the ministries involved must be vigilant and be proactive to ensure systems and processes are in place to protect our students.

Unfortunately not all our students have had jabs. Some are unable to get jabs.

These are the vulnerable ones in the school system. The New York Times reported on January 1, that in two short weeks, as the year closed out, the Omicron variant drove coronavirus case counts to record levels, upended air travel and left gaping staffing holes at police departments, firehouses and hospitals.

But as millions of Americans travel back home to start school and work again, it reported, no one is sure of what comes next.

However, it reported, most of the nation’s largest school districts had decided to forge ahead and remain open, at least for the time being, citing the toll that remote learning has taken on students’ mental health and academic success. It stated the rising number of cases has not yet been followed by a proportionate increase in hospitalisations and deaths, though hospitalisations have increased in recent days — a sign that the Omicron variant seems to cause fewer cases of severe illness.

In saying that, we look ahead with optimism, and will look to the ministries concerned to monitor the situation closely, and make appropriate decisions moving forward.