More monitors for classes

The Ministry of Education has hired additional monitors to assist teachers in ensuring that COVID-19 protocols are followed in the school environment when face-to-face learning resumes next week.

Following a meeting with the monitors at the Wildey Gymnasium today, Chief Education Officer Joy Adamson told members of the media that an additional 30 monitors have been brought on this term to be assigned primarily to nursery schools where the additional help is needed.

“We will have at least two additional monitors at the nursery schools because we know that they need the extra hand,” she said.

Adamson did not go into details about the meeting, but described the proceedings as productive. She said there are currently over 200 monitors in the programme.

While Barbados TODAY understands that some monitors have been asking for an increase in their pay, the Chief Education Officer explained that it has been agreed that the workers’ National Insurance will be paid and they will receive their regular stipend.

Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Education Dr Rommel Springer also attended the meeting which started around 10 a.m. and lasted one and a half hours.

During a press conference in March, Minister of Education Santia Bradshaw hailed the introduction of the monitors to the school system last year as a major factor leading to schools minimizing the associated risks of COVID-19.

Bradshaw pointed to a recent study by UNICEF, which indicated that one of the things that placed Barbados head and shoulders above all other Caribbean territories, was the fact that from the early stages of the pandemic the country was able to place safety monitors within the schools to assist teachers and principals in ensuring that students sanitize their hands, wear masks and maintain physical distancing. (AH)