Unions on board with online school this term

The heads of the two main teachers’ unions on the island are in full agreement with the decision to take classes online at the beginning of the new school year in light of a new surge in COVID-19 cases.

President of the Barbados Secondary Teachers’ Union (BSTU), Mary Redman told Barbados TODAY that she fully embraced Minister of Education Santia Bradshaw’s announcement that classes will be fully online when schools begin the new 2021-2022 academic year on September 20.

Bradshaw said the decision comes amid a new surge of COVID-19 infections linked to the Delta variant which has led to over 100 students in isolation. The Daryl Jordan Secondary and Blackman and Gollop Primary have been outfitted as supplemental isolation centres should the situation worsen.

The BSTU president said: “I fully embrace this decision against the fact that the Delta variant is here and children are far more vulnerable to this variant as compared to the previous ones as we see with the 114 children in isolation up to yesterday.[ Tuesday] I think that this is the safest way to start our school year on the 20th of September.

“It is the most effective way to ensure that we can start educating our children again and doing so in an environment that offers them and all other school users, including teachers and ancillary staff, a safer environment.”

Redman said in light of an increasing number of children being diagnosed with COVID, parents must carry out their own research on the COVID-19 vaccine to get the relevant guidance to deciding whether to get their charges vaccinated.

“That is the only way that we will be able to resume education that we consider to be normal, in the not too distant future.”

Meanwhile, President of the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) Pedro Shepherd acknowledged the union’s support for the ministry’s decision, although he is fully aware that it is not the road teachers wish to travel.

He said the ministry must closely look at the intended duration of online school and to work on a plan that would allow for faceto-face teaching. The only challenge he sees to virtual school is ensuring that all teachers and students are equipped with the devices to access the online classroom environment.

“The challenge would be to have teachers and students with devices and students with internet connectivity. In order for online school to start smoothly, we would prefer parents to have students accessing the online tuition and giving as little interruptions as possible.

“We know that we would have had parents interrupting classes before and they need to find a place where students can quietly go online without interruptions from anything,” Shepherd noted.

Meanwhile, in a video statement on Tuesday, the education minister said in order to be able to get ahead of the virus, the Ministry of

Health may need to use other schools as isolation facilities. Bradshaw explained that many schools have been upgraded and the bathroom facilities and showers could facilitate those in isolation. (AH)