As face to face resumes, parents in race against time with tailors
EDUCATION MINISTER Fayval Williams is urging parents and guardians to check the ministry’s website and their children’s schools for information on the schedule for the resumption of face-to-face classes.
A total of 376 small primary and infant schools, with students aged six to 12 years, have been listed to reopen for in-person sessions on Monday, November 8.
However, for some schools like Carron Hall Primary School in St Mary, the restart has been pushed back by a week as parents are not quite ready to have their children back in the classroom, said principal Brenton Pinnock.
Carron Hall Primary, with a roll of 110 students, was approved for resumption of face-to-face classes on Monday.
Uniforms for many students are still with dressmakers and tailors, the principal said. But he is elated at the prospect of a return to the classroom.
“As you recognise, the spike has been up and down, so we were definitely unprepared for this particular time.
“... From 2020 we have been out from face to face, quite a number of students have lost ground so we’re going to do our very best to catch up where we’ve lost.”
RECORD DEATHS
Jamaica is emerging from the shadow cast by the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic which triggered record deaths in August and caused hospital wards to spill over and oxygen to run out.
But a series of lockdowns over the last two months has stemmed the outbreak, opening a door of opportunity for the education sector to re-establish a semblance of normality.
Speaking to The Gleaner during a handover ceremony of tablets and other school supplies by Reading Owls International at Carron Hall Primary School in St Mary on Thursday, Williams said the list of schools reopening Monday has been published on its website.
“Yes, it (the list of schools) is on our website, should be, and I’m sure they’ve made it public to the schools as well because the schools need to prepare,” Williams told The Gleaner.
However, up to 5 p.m. on Friday, that list was yet to be uploaded.
Parents were also urged to verify with administrators whether their children’s schools had been given the green light.
Regarding vaccination levels and projections that a fourth wave could hit the country by year end, Williams urged each individual to protect themselves.
“The environment that we’re in, we have to simply live our lives and protect ourselves as best as we can,” she said.
“We’ve been in this pandemic going well over a year and a half. There’s nobody that doesn’t know that they need to wear their masks, wash their hands, sit apart from each other, and so forth.”
SAFETY REGIMEN
She said the Ministry of Education was guided by the safety regimen laid out by healthcare officials.
Williams could not divulge the latest vaccine compliance data on teacher vaccination.
At Thursday’s presentation, 12 students from Carron Hall Primary received backpacks and/or tablets from Reading Owls as part of an overall donation of more than US$28,000 for five schools.
Besides Carron Hall Primary, recipient schools included Jamaica China Goodwill Infant, Seaview Early Childhood Development Centre, Unity Primary and Infant, and Naggo Head Infant.
Latoya Harris of Reading Owls said the organisation was deeply committed to ensuring that every child has the resources needed for success.
She thanked donors who contributed goods valued at more than J$8 million to Reading Owls to hand over to nine other schools this year.