Schools, teachers ready for next week

It might not be a smooth reopening but teachers are as ready as can be for the start of the new school term next week.

With school scheduled to resume on Monday, president of the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) Pedro Shepherd has assured that teachers are dedicated to having classes ready for that date.

He told Barbados TODAY the BUT had scheduled a meeting for Friday with its members to hear any concerns.

“I can tell you that teachers are working feverishly at their schools to have the schools ready for Monday, September 21, but we are also cognizant of the fact that the real test is going to be on Monday when students are going to be on the compound.

“The test really is going to be on Monday, but I can tell you that all this week teachers were rearranging classes…We are prepared and preparing for opening on Monday. Whether or not it will be an easy opening or a smooth opening I cannot tell you but I know that there are going to be some serious challenges,” Shepherd said.

He said one of those challenges pertained to how students would be managed.

Due to the COVID-19 protocols he said past practices of having full assembly before classes would have to be discontinued.

“We know for sure there are going to be challenges prior to the physical opening of the schools. I know there were some schools that were looking at opening hours in terms of when they should open the gate to allow students in because you still have to control them once they are on the inside,” he noted.

Shepherd said this meant either teachers or parents would have to be on hand to supervise children prior to the commencement of school at 8:45 a.m.

He said another challenge faced by schools and teachers was finding areas to store excess furniture.

The BUT president explained that because teachers were having smaller classes, excess furniture had to be moved and stored.

“The way schools are operating, taking half of the students, it means that the additional furniture now has to be removed from the classroom to allow for the spacing of the remaining furniture, so schools are now looking for every corner and every crevice within the school to store furniture and stuff.

“So there is another health and safety component that we would have to look at in terms of all of this furniture being stacked up under staircases and so on at schools,” Shepherd said.

He said while teachers were doing everything in their power to be prepared, he admitted that he was looking forward to hearing the outcome of tonight’s meeting involving personnel from the Ministry of Education and parents. (RB)