Back-to-school move lauded

Veteran educator Jeff Broomes says the resumption of face-to-face classes is long overdue.

Broomes told Barbados TODAY that whether students return to physical classes on February 21, or a few days later as the teachers’ unions have requested, he believes it needs to happen as soon as possible because too many children are falling behind in their academic studies.

Broomes, who has been offering free lessons to 11-Plus students once a week, said from his interactions with those children, he has concluded that online school seems not to be working out for many of them.

“I am very happy to see that teachers and children will be returning to the physical classroom. Getting children back into school is a good move and that shouldn’t be a ministry thing alone. It should be about the ministry, parents, unions, teachers, all of them should be working together on that one.

“It is because of my work with these children that I can make the comment that I just made. I am seeing a lot of gaps. These school children are way behind where they should be normally. In other words, they are behind what I normally see on an annual basis. In fact, they are terms behind and that is the best way that I can put it,” he said.

But the educator said he also respects the fact that teachers have safety concerns and are within their rights to ensure that they and their charges are returning to a safe environment.

“Once all stakeholders sit down and have collective bargaining, I can respect that, I have no difficulties with that. They have to see whether they are going to have classes split in half, or what they are going to do, because you cannot have no 28 and 30 children in any class now.

“We have to see how we could use outdoor teaching, how we can use the halls, how we can use the pavilions for teaching. I think that the Government has done a lot of really good things to get a little control of the pandemic and I respect that. I think getting children back in school is the next obvious step and I am glad to see it is being made,” Broomes said.

The retired principal said he was also concerned that for almost two years school-aged children have been denied the opportunity to effectively develop their social skills because of the pandemic.

Broomes, who said he was also awaiting more information on the proposed changes to the education system, including plans for middle schools, indicated that he will be featured on an educational radio programme, and possibly a television production, in the near future.

“I am doing the lessons and preparing for the radio programmes because I think it is necessary for me to do so at this time. This is important and it can also have a spill off effect of filling in some of the gaps for children,” he said. (AH)