Unions objection to classroom protocols zeroes in on three-foot spacing

The Barbados Secondary Teachers Union (BSTU) on Thursday made the case against current protocols for in-person learning, claiming that students and staff are vulnerable to the threat of COVID-19, Barbados TODAY has learned.

In a three-page document obtained by Barbados TODAY, the unions contend that authorities have failed to meet recommendations from regional and international health organisations to ensure safe operations at schools.

The arguments were all put on the table during Wednesday’s three-hour meeting of over 150 union members, as well as Chief Medical Officer Dr Kenneth George, QEH Head of Infection Control Dr Corey Forde and Chief Education Officer Joy Adamson.

Despite their complaints, it is still unclear what changes, if any, are to be implemented by authorities.

At the top of the list is the controversial three-feet physical distancing requirement, which the unions say is three-feet short of advice provided by the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) which currently recommends six-foot distancing in an environment where teachers have been fully vaccinated.

But the US Centre for Disease Control (CDC) recommends three-feet distancing only during “cohorting” – the school context in which a small group of students are together in an environment where they do not interact with the members of other cohorts. This, the BSTU says, is not occurring within schools.

The BSTU also zeroed in on CDC suggestions of six-foot distancing during periods like lunchtime when masks cannot be worn. The union claims that currently, students in Barbados’ public schools eat at distances of less than three feet as well as on public transport and in an environment where schools are poorly ventilated and sanitisation supplies are inadequate.

The unions argued: “Given all the above that must work in concert to supplement/compliment the efficacy of three-feet physical distancing and the extent to which they are non-existent, limited or non-functional in our school system, we have reasonable cause for concern not based on irrational or unreasonable fear.

“Our concerns are also based on facts that, unlike our last exposure to face to face instruction, we are operating within a context of community spread, with numbers still within moderate transmission, with a new variant that is 70 per cent more virulent which has proven to be more deadly because of our demographics both of age and co-morbidity occurrence, and a variant to which young people are more vulnerable.

“The vast majority of our teachers and other school workers that have been vaccinated have only received one vaccine and are therefore not fully covered and lacking the immunity that full coverage provides.

“The fact that within the first week of school we have seen two positive cases of COVID-19 underscores our unwavering position for six feet distancing in our schools in an abundance of caution to mitigate covid-19 infection risk for all those on school plants.”

The union, led by president Mary Redman, challenged the Ministry of Education’s contention that “schools are no different” from other public and private sector institutions and warned that such a mindset would result in “unfortunate and “unintended” outcomes.

“The union’s hope is that an understanding of teachers’ realities might influence a greater appreciation of the positions that it takes and that the Ministry of Health, its advisory role to the Minister of Education can factor those realities into the COVID-19 protocols,” the BSTU said.

(kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb)