The Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, on the heals of an announcement by Prime Minister Andrew Holness in Parliament last night (October 26), has indicated that approval has been granted for the phased resumption of face-to-face instruction more than 300 primary level institutions. 

In a statement, shortly after the prime minister outlined adjustments to the measures to management the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak in the island, the ministry said 376 small primary/primary and infant schools across the island, accounting for more than 45,000 students and 2,500 teachers, have been selected to begin offering face-to-face instructions starting November 8.

The ministry noted that, as indicated by Holness, the selection of the schools was guided by its Risk Ranking Analysis.

“This includes those schools with three or less streams of classes in each grade, an enrolment of 630 or less and are currently occupying 80 per cent or less of their capacity,” the ministry said. 

REQUIREMENTS FOR ADMINISTRATORS

However, before face-to-face instructions can be offered by these schools, administrators are required to:

1. Obtain a satisfactory institutional health inspection and COVID-19 compliant approval report from the Ministry of Health and Wellness for this new academic year. 

2. Engage their parents in consultation to arrive at a consensus on start date for in-person learning, which should give parents adequate time to prepare the students for classes. Consultation can be done virtually or in small groups as per the guidelines of the Disaster Risk Management Act. 

3. Submit to the regional office a copy of the satisfactory health reports and a letter signed by the board chairman indicating the extent of the parent consultation and the proposed start date for face-to-face engagement. The letter should also outline the schedule for in-person learning including the approach to be used, whether whole day or rotational. Schools are asked to ensure that each year group is given at least two days of in-person learning each week.

4. The regional offices, in consultation with the Planning and Development Division and the Schools’ Operations and Improvement Services Branch, will provide written approval for the commencement of face-to-face instruction. The region will also provide monitoring support as is customary.

During his presentation, the prime minister had indicated that learning loss throughout the pandemic, which has seen the disruption of schools since March of 2020, has been “incalculable” and that thousands of students have had minimal to no access to remote learning.

“This is the area I worry about the most,” Holness told Parliament.

He said grades 11-13 students would be granted permission to engage in limited face-to-face instruction in small groups using a rotation schedule and that infant schools, basic schools and “brain builder” schools would be allowed to allow their students in unvaccinated, as they are not yet approved to receive any of the vaccines available to combat COVID-19.

“We will return primary school children to school as well. Many of them will return unvaccinated as well,” Holness had said.

“We are doing this knowing and conscious that reopening and sending our children back to school could cause the numbers [of infections] to increase,” he added as he urged parents and guardians of these students to get vaccinated to ensure there is less of chance of their children transmitting the virus to them.

He also stressed that teachers and other adults who work at the institutions should ensure they are vaccinated as well.

The 376 institutions approved for reopening make up just about half of the 759 schools across the island, with 51 per cent being small primary schools with less than 100 students enrolled.