Ministry breaching distancing guidelines by having two students sitting together – GTU
…says over 150 teachers, students contracted COVID-19 during first week of school
President of the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) Mark Lyte has accused the Ministry of Education of breaching both the gazetted COVID-19 guidelines as well as the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) social distancing advice.
The accusation came after the GTU President reported that students are being made to sit two on a bench while classes are in session which clearly breaches the Ministry of Health’s 6 feet apart mandate as well as the WHO’s minimum 1 metre apart advice.
“We now have children seated two in a bench. The Union wrote the ministry indicating that a bench is just over a metre long and therefore, it does not provide the opportunity for a safe distance between two students, two learners.
“We have seen a shifting of the goalposts. The Ministry of Education, they have breached the COVID19 protocols established by the COVID Task Force that still to this day is saying a safe social distance is six feet apart. That hasn’t changed in the COVID gazetted order. Alright, let us see that we are looking at what is recommended by WHO as a safe distance of one metre. Is it safe to place two children in a bench?” Lyte asked a virtual meeting of teachers and parents on Friday evening.
He restated the Union’s call for a cessation of all faceto-face classes as the COVID-19 numbers continue to rise. Guyana recorded almost 4200 new cases of the virus since school reopened on January 03. According to the GTU, 153 students and teachers tested positive with many others fearful of taking the test but who are showing signs.
“The Guyana Teachers’ Union is aware that many of our learners have become sick. Many of our teachers have become sick, and they have not been able to access their results. Many are fearful to get that result or to go and do that test and so they’re isolating themselves. So we don’t have a true reflection of the number of people affected in the education sector, the number of households affected in the education sector, (and) the number of learners affected in the education sector. We don’t have a true figure and I am not going to say that the Ministry of Education is aware of the numbers,” Lyte told the meeting.
On Thursday, Education Minister Priya Manickchand told Stabroek News that 98 teachers and 4 ancillary staff received a positive test. However, she had pointed out that the number did not include schools in the Georgetown District as the numbers were still coming in. No additional figures were presented to this newspaper.
Meanwhile, Lyte said that the Union’s call for closure of schools is not because teachers are reluctant to teach rather it is attributed to the spike in cases as well as the Ministry’s seeming disorganized approach towards faceto-face learning.
“The problem is we cannot have sick people in our country and consider them to be our assets. We need a healthy human resource and while there may have been learning loss over the years, it is quite clear that the present situation is that we have returned to what existed prior to March 13 2020 (when schools were closed after the initial detection of COVID-19 in Guyana)…We have seen the addition of a number of other students within the learning environment and this is frightening. Is it safe to crowd a school with over 400 children at the same time?” he questioned.
He argued the both the President and the Minister of Health have been saying to avoid large crowds and social distance but yet the Ministry of Education is bent on having more than 400 students in school at one time. He accused the MoE of contradicting the orders of the health experts.
“We want to say to you clearly it is unacceptable to have our teachers who are the professionals in the education sector, it is uncaring to have learners get sick at school and consider it to be normal…Something has to be done. It is not business as usual. We are not saying schools must remain closed forever. We are not saying there is no learning loss. We are not saying children are affected. We are saying the spike that we are seeing evidently is cause for schools to be closed,” Lyte said.
During the lengthy virtual meeting, both parents and teachers also shared their views on the reopening of schools with the common view being to have classes discontinued until the obvious spike in positive cases diminishes.
‘My work week’
In what can be considered as a response to the concerns of parents and teachers as expressed during the
GTU meeting, Minister Manickchand took to her Facebook page to share snippets of her workweek.
She said that her week included a 60% approval rating from parents for the decision to reopen schools.
“10% of parents (louder than the 60% above) Manickchand is a nut for opening school now. She doesn’t care about our children. Look how much people get covid. I not sending my child (it is this set that troubled me the most especially seeing as how I ‘liked’ all their old years night, sporting, liming, party, malling, creek, Congress pics and so on over the last few weeks! Hey man, your dress and cooler was nice and snatching that mace was the bomb… and I am sure you couldn’t catch Covid there ). 10% of parents - we want to go back out but we waiting to see what will happen. 20 % of parents - we have no clue there’s a quarrel going on about whether to open or not,” the Minister wrote.
She added that 95% of high school students are eager to be back while 30% of primary students want to stay home forever. Additionally, the Minister argued that every other country in the world is reopening schools to combat learning loss among other things.
Tearing into a parent, who shared her concerns during the GTU meeting, Manickchand said “The most ironic thing- there is freedom to do as you like with your kids but NOT freedom to dictate for other people. Last night a woman purporting to be a mother of a nursery child said to the union that she is scared to send her child so we must close the whole school. The obvious question is: why do you want to take away the choice from the parents who read the science, took the vaccine and want to send their kids.”
Observers in the education sector have been saying that there is a disconnect between the Ministry, parents and teachers.