Anna-Lisa Paul
Education Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly believes that as students in Forms One to Three return to school, the move will reduce the complexity of the current situation where some students are engaged in face-to-face learning while others remain at home.
Responding to questions yesterday regarding the proposed move to bring back vaccinated lower form students into the classroom in the coming days, she said, “Schools are in transition - as students achieve full vaccination status, they are joining their peers in face to face attendance.”
“Bringing out the Forms 1 - 3 will allow teachers to have all their classes face to face. This will reduce the complexity of the current circumstances with Upper school face to face, and Lower school online.”
She said while vaccination is considered the safest status for students face-to-face school attendance at this time, “There exists the need to provide educational material to students who are not at physical school.”
Acknowledging there are various models schools have chosen for this, she advised, “The model chosen must depend on the circumstances of the individual schools and teachers. The transition back to face-to-face school for teachers will impact, in many cases, the conduct of online teaching.”
“It cannot be business as usual when teachers are physically back out to work at the schools. This readjustment must be guided by principles of reasonableness; not only for the students, but also for the teachers.”
Vaccinated students in Forms Four to Six returned to the physical classroom on October 4, prompting concerns as to how much more is being demanded from teachers who now have to conduct face-to-face sessions, prepare online sessions, and ready packages for those without devices and/or internet connectivity.
Asked for numbers as to the attendance of students in the past week, Gadsby-Dolly was unable to provide such just yet.
And pressed to say if the Ministry of Education intended to change its operating guidelines following last week’s incident where a teacher at Shiva Boys Hindu College tested positive for the COVID-19 virus – Gadsby-Dolly said, “In a pandemic, it is anticipated that any student or staff member may contract the virus.”
“This is why there are detailed procedures for how this is to be handled elucidated in the Guidelines. As obtained when schools were in session for Forms 4-6 from February 2021, these matters will be handled with the oversight of the Education District Health Unit.”
During her contribution to the budget debate on October 8, the minister revealed that government was considering bringing out Forms One to Three within the next two weeks.
This, as they embark on the second phase of the plan for the physical reopening of schools.
The first phase saw the return of fully vaccinated students in Forms Four to Six on October 4.
She said, “Once all goes well, Forms One to Three vaccinated secondary school children will join their Forms Four to Six peers in physical classes within the next two weeks once all goes well.”
Gadsby-Dolly has in the past acknowledged the strain placed on teachers who now have to juggle varying systems of content delivery and is hopeful the return to physical classes will ease that burden in some measure.
All schools in T&T closed their doors on March 16, 2020 after the country’s first case of COVID-19 was diagnosed.