Teachers unions, Gov’t to meet over school resumption fears

The island’s two main teachers’ unions are expressing deep concern over the upsurge in COVID-19 infections among children, casting doubt over a return to the classroom this month.

President of the Barbados Secondary Teachers’ Union (BSTU) Mary Redman on Monday drew attention to an increasing risk to members who will interact with children 18 years and under, the category in which the highly-infectious Delta variant appears to be more devastating.

“The teachers, like everybody else in the society, are really concerned about the uptick in the numbers and the fact too that there is now the Delta variant. And with Delta has come a serious rise in infections among the 18 years and under age group. Of course, that is the age group with which we interact on a daily basis in the school environment,” Redman told Barbados TODAY.

The BSTU leader added: “The implications for increased risks of infections are obvious in terms of people interacting with one another in the school environment. And that risk increases where persons are not vaccinated, either students or teachers. The primary school children can’t be vaccinated at all.”

Redman said the union and the ministry therefore have to meet as soon as possible to “strategize on how best we are going to approach the delivery of education come September”.

The union head told Barbados TODAY that the BSTU will await the outcome of a meeting with the ministry possibly this week and then take the outcome to its membership and see how to proceed.

“We expect that there will be a meeting this week to deal with this [upsurge] and to deal with other outstanding matters as well…to deal with re-entry to school with all of the unions…We expect another meeting to deal with outstanding issues for BSTU…a quarterly meeting with the ministry,” Redman stated.

She said that because the union now has to meet with the ministry, it can’t be specific at this stage on the resumption of classes.

“We have to meet and see exactly what they are proposing now given the circumstances that have arisen and to what extent the original plans will change. We have to hear exactly what they are saying and have our input at that level,” the BSTU president emphasized.

She noted that the union held discussions about two weeks ago with the ministry to plan for the new school year just before it met with school principals.

Also on Monday, President of the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) Pedro Shepherd suggested that school might not reopen on September 20 as scheduled, due to the number of school buildings being deployed as isolation centres.

Shepherd said members have been talking about the upsurge in coronavirus cases that are adversely impacting minors even though a regular executive union meeting today did not have it as an agenda item.

“It’s just a wait and see. We know there are schools that are being used as isolation centres. We are of the view that schools might not even start on the 20th, but nobody is saying what is going to happen as far as the commencement of school is concerned. We are seeing pictures of schools with beds in their auditoriums and halls in preparation for any outbreak. So we still have to wait and see what the ministry’s position is in terms of the start of the school term and whether face-to-face would still be a practical thing or whether it would be online,” the BUT leader told Barbados TODAY.

“I believe we will have a meeting with the ministry before the start of school. We were supposed to have one two Wednesdays ago, but then they had the changing over or appointment of the Chief Education Officer…and I did receive a call from the Chief indicating that she would want to meet with the unions soon. But I don’t know if other events have overtaken, but she has not gotten back to us as to when this meeting would be. But I am assuming that it would be before school starts,” he stated.

With respect to administering the vaccine to children, Shepherd said it remains a matter of choice for parents.

He said while those between 12 and 16 would require parental consent, students 16 to 18 would be able to agree to take the injection on their own.

“We are monitoring those developments across the region. We have just heard coming out of Trinidad statements to the effect that only students that are vaccinated would be allowed in schools. So we are watching that development. It is basically a wait-and-see as far as the union is concerned at this point,” the BUT president declared.

Last Friday, Minister of Health and Wellness Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Bostic told a televised press briefing that 29 new cases of the virus had been reported in children under age 12, a development he described as an alarming game-changer, while authorities target the highly-contagious Delta variant in the country.

Nursing officer at the Harrison Point Isolation Centre Glendora Seale, who also appeared at the briefing, disclosed that more and more young people were ending up there with the virus.

“As time progressed, we have seen an increase in the number of younger people who are below the age of 16, who are coming in with COVID-19,” she said. “A large percentage of them are symptomatic and some of them, which is a good set, end up in the intensive care setting at Harrison Point where we give support to the patients who not only have comorbidities, but they have severe symptoms of COVID-19 and they need advanced medical support.” (emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb)