Classrooms to continue teachings

There will be no premature closure of schools in Barbados, Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley said this evening as she addressed the matter during an interview on CBC television.

Such a move, she explained, would cause serious dislocation for students and their families.

Acknowledging that other Caribbean neighbours had closed schools, including Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and St Lucia, she noted that Barbados would continue to follow the science and the data.

“A decision will be made if we reach stage two, in respect of institutions such as schools. But we have to weigh very carefully the consequences of the dislocation that will happen if we go to a premature closure of schools because children are then exposed to a range of other things that we would ordinarily not want them exposed to, “ she said. She stressed that it would only be warranted when there is confirmed human to human transmission of the virus, as outlined under phase two of the Barbados National Influenza Pandemic Prepared Plan.

In this regard, Mottley pointed out that the majority of children would normally be left with grandparents, or older people, and this would put older people at risk. She also noted that many children depended on school meals both at the primary and secondary schools.

The Prime Minister said the Ministry of Education has already been engaging teachers’ but those discussions are set to continue on Tuesday.

“We expect that we would like to be able to meet with as many stakeholders who depend on the borders being open by Wednesday evening,” she said.

In addition, she added, Minister of Education Santia Bradshaw is also to make provision for workers especially those over 60 with chronic non-communicable diseases and believed to be vulnerable to non-communicable diseases.

We will make accommodation and the rest of us who are in the system would have to help lift weight, Mottley assured.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister stressed that schools would be kept clean and the vulnerable population be insulated from possible infection.

COVID-19 Czar, Richard Carter, also weighed in on the discussion and shared his experience during the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone.

He noted that mass school closures significantly increased the burden on parents and this in turn affected their commitment to work.

“The childcare responsibility; the responsibility for instruction; the responsibility for the integrity of social relations; the strain that will be put on parents who are now concerned that their children are at home, and therefore their commitment to work waivers,” he said.