Ministry addressing PPE and internet issues in schools

Chief Education Officer Ramona Archer- Bradshaw is looking into reports that teachers at some schools across the island returned to face-to-face classes with inadequate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and limited internet connectivity.

President of the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) Rudy Lovell told Barbados TODAY that he received complaints from several teachers on Monday they did not receive the PPE equipment the Ministry of Education promised they would, and that they struggled to cope with poor WIFI access.

“I believe we should have gotten the PPE today. If you are promising us personal protective equipment we would have hoped that they would have been received today for the start of the school term. But I guess the ministry has not received them yet. I am hoping that is the case.
We would have to give them the benefit of the doubt,” Lovell said.

However, when contacted, Dr Archer- Bradshaw said the Ministry of Education issued at least 48 cloth masks to each school, and is awaiting additional PPE from the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO).

The Chief Education Officer added that by the end of February, approximately 30 schools would have improved internet connectivity as part of the Ministry of Education’s Fence-to-fence WIFI programme. She said the programme, which is being executed in a phased manner, was designed to boost connectivity.

“With regards to the PPE, the Ministry of Education has made cloth masks available for principals to collect so that they can distribute to the teachers. Each school was given 48 cloth masks. As I had stated earlier, we approached PAHO as it relates to masks for teachers and they had said that they will assist us in that regard.

So, we are expecting to get the masks from them sometime this week.

“Now, in terms of the WIFI this is a situation that the ministry is consistently addressing as part of our Fence-to-Fence programme. We have addressed the issue of WIFI in a number of schools. What we did with regards to the schools was to place them into categories, such as easy to fix, medium or hard. We are aware of the situation relative to the WIFI and we want to make sure that all schools will have the ability to facilitate sessions online utilizing that WIFI but we have to do that on a phased basis,” Dr Archer-Bradshaw said.

Lovell indicated that despite the two concerns he mentioned, some teachers also said that schools were being cleaned when they arrived to start classes. But the acting President said that the day’s proceedings could be described as eventful.

“From what I was told by my steward, one school in particular where remedial work was completed, cleaning was still ongoing and at another school there was cleaning from some form of work but not extensive repairs.

“We have to wait until Friday to see how well the week went because today is the day when most people are busy trying to acclimatize back into the school environment. We just want to give it at least until Friday or so to see if there are any significant issues. But before the week is over, we are going to be in schools checking on the issues that we would have identified,” Lovell said. (AH)