With just weeks to go until physical classes resume for students in Forms 1-3 and Standard Five, two groups representing the parents of those students are saying they will not send their children back to school.
President of the Concerned Parents Movement, Clarence Mendoza told the Morning Brew host, Jason ‘JW’ Williams, that since 2021 parents have been signalling their intention to homeschool their children.
Mendoza said those parents were concerned about their children contracting COVID-19 during face-to-face classes.
“Some (parents) will send their children out to school but the majority of parents who are calling in are saying they are not taking the chance at this point in time to send their children out to school, if they cannot go to work, they will be keeping their children at home as well with them and they will be homeschooling their children,” Mendoza said.
He admitted that this mode of schooling will put some students at a disadvantage when they have to sit examinations.
But Mendoza said parents were more concerned about the health and well-being of their children.
“They are weighing the options they don’t want to take any vaccines for their children, they don’t want them vaccinated, they say all the safe zones that are in place, it is really is a silly zone, it is nothing that will work for them, the vaccinated are also dying from the virus and the vaccinated are also contracting the virus- they may not die but it is a gamble.”
Mendoza said the association believes the pandemic will come to an end before the end of 2022 and students will be able to return safely to school without the risk of contracting the virus.
“It’s been two to three years we have been going through this and it must come to an end- whether it’s a pandemic within our country alone, it must come to an end.”
Mendoza maintains taking a COVID-19 vaccine should be a personal choice.
“I myself am fully vaccinated and I have been vaccinated quite a long time, my wife and I are both vaccinated and I also have children who refuse to take the vaccine, it is a matter of choice.”
Meanwhile, the administrator of the SEA Parent Support Group, Rachiel Ramsamooj said members of the group were also not in support of students returning to physical classes with the high number of COVID-19 cases and deaths.
Ramsamooj said this batch of SEA students have already become comfortable with online classes.
“They are the ones who gotten the most online interaction prior to the exam because we would have two batches write the exam and would not have had that length of online schooling, a lot of parents are very comfortable in letting their children stay home until the day of the exam, given that they have been doing this for so long,” Ramsamooj said.
She said while there have been some calls among the membership for the examination date to be pushed back, many more parents want the date to remain the same.
Ramsamooj said while the students will be missing out on the socialisation aspect of schooling and the ability to interact with their teachers and peers face-to-face, the group is hoping the return to classes can be postponed.
“The ideal situation is if we have reduced numbers in deaths and cases alike but we can just only hope for that because that’s not happening anytime soon, so just keep them home until they can write the exam and go from there.”