Following months of calls from various education stakeholders that a plan be put in place to allow for a resumption of face-to-face classes, Prime Minister Andrew Holness says a sub-committee of Cabinet is to meet today (October 22) to consider a submission from the Education Ministry on the matter.

Many Jamaican students have been out of physical classrooms since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March of 2020.

This has forced teachers and students to transition to primarily virtual modalities of learning and has resulted in significant learning loss for students unable to regularly access online learning programmes.

Given this, Holness, in response to questions from journalists at the end of a vaccination tour in North Clarendon, stated: “The Minister of Education has put before Cabinet a submission for us to consider the reopening of schools, and we will be taking a full analysis of this document tomorrow when the COVID committee of Cabinet meets. The consideration is for a return to face-to-face for some categories of students… .”

The prime minister emphasised that, among the categories for which consideration is to be given, is vaccinated students.

He noted, however, that in considering a reopening of schools, “we have to also look at where we are in the present wave. The positivity rate is not low enough to risk the return to any form of activity that may contribute to spread.

“We have to weigh that, against the obvious need and benefit of getting our children back into school. Again the one solution to this is to increase the vaccination rate.”

Holness again appealed to right-thinking Jamaicans and, in particular parents who would like to see their children return to school, to “do the right thing for your child and get vaccinated, and when the vaccines that are approved for children…come please get your child vaccinated”.