Back to full-time in-person classes next year

Students are to begin heading back to the classrooms for regular, full-time instruction next week, Minister of Education Santia Bradshaw announced on Wednesday.

But the priority is to be given to special needs children and those facing examinations.

During a televised press conference at the ministry’s Constitution Road headquarters, Bradshaw said the decision to allow face-to-face teaching in the Hilary Term which begins on Tuesday, was taken after “extensive discussions” with unions, principals, teachers, students and the COVID-19 Monitoring Unit.

She explained that special needs students, candidates for the 11-Plus Examination, first-formers and fifth and sixth-form students setting CXC and CAPE examinations would be among the first to return to school on a full-time basis.

But Bradshaw said the “status quo” for other students, in which students attend school on alternate days, would remain unless instructed otherwise by their respective schools.

During a meeting earlier this month, students made it clear to Bradshaw that they wanted to return to the classroom.

The minister said: “After all of our extensive discussions…I am pleased to say that there is overwhelming consensus amongst the stakeholders that we have to move in the direction of being able to allow our students to return to the classroom environment fully.

“Of course on January 5, it will not mean that every single student will return to the classroom one time, but what it does mean is that we will be working over the course of the next few weeks with the COVID-19 Monitoring Unit to be able to gradually return students to the classroom,”

Bradshaw noted that students with special needs had been especially disadvantaged due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The minister said to accommodate the high numbers of children expected at schools, additional janitors, teachers, safety officers, counsellors and social workers had been hired.

She told journalists: “We have increased our janitorial staff because we recognize we have to ensure that you have to have the sanitizing done at the schools.

“We also added some additional teachers as well, because that was a common concern from the teaching profession last year that many teachers worked beyond the call of duty to be able to address the needs of students and so we have been able to secure the resources to be able to allow for that gradual introduction of additional support into the school system to ensure that teachers are comfortable.”

She disclosed that a ministry team, led by Deputy Chief Education Officer Glyne Price, is to review and monitor each school across the island to ensure students are being gradually reintegrated and that they are adhering to the protocols set out by the COVID-19 Monitoring Unit.

While the minister acknowledged there had been some challenges with a blended approach of online and in-person teaching, she denied that it had disadvantaged students and led to them falling behind in their studies.

Although face-to-face classes were preferred, some students had benefited from the virtual teaching, Bradshaw claimed.

“It isn’t a case that the blended approach is hindering the ability of students to keep up,” she told reporters. “We have been thrust into a pandemic and by being thrust into the pandemic, even with all the best intentions of being able to introduce technology and use all of the tools that are available to teachers, there needed to be a timeframe within that transition and obviously teachers did not have the opportunity to take the time to learn the tools and make the transition to the blended approach.

“The blended approach has worked in some schools and it simply has benefited certain students but the reality is that children learn differently and there are some children who need to have somebody over their shoulder motivating them to be able to pay attention in the classroom.”

Bradshaw also disclosed that the Ministry of Education is awaiting a shipment of 21,000 electronic devices from Kenya to assist both teachers and students.

(randybennett@barbadostoday.bb)