BSTU, BUT say teachers being exposed to COVID in schools

Leaders of the island’s teachers’ unions are expressing serious concern about COVID-19 outbreaks and what they describe as “unilateral” decisions to abandon protocols at some schools.

President of the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) Rudy Lovell revealed that members had expressed serious concerns about an outbreak at the Wilkie Cumberbatch Primary School on Monday evening.

Meanwhile, Barbados Secondary Teachers’ Union (BSTU) president Mary Redman said protocol breaches at another primary school are potentially exposing teachers to infection from all angles, as the country contends with a heightened number of cases across the board.

Of particular concern to Redman is the Blackman and Gollop Primary School where a decision was reportedly taken to abandon physical distancing protocols and welcome all students back into the classroom from Monday to Friday.

“Definitely I’ve been getting reports about increasing numbers of teachers and teachers reporting increasing numbers of students in the school,” she confirmed.

“But what is of concern to me is a report that I got from one of my members at Blackman and Gollop stating that the full complement of students turned up for school on Monday, and to allow for that, the administration has abandoned physical distancing.

“Our members have indicated that there was no prior discussion with them about the matter and that is a cause for concern for us in a situation where we are in the middle of an uptick of Omicron BA2 and it’s so transmissible,” the BSTU head added.

Redman noted that along with the daily number of cases reaching as high as 620, the positivity rate has been over 30 per cent, with 20 per cent of the infected population under age 18.

She noted that within the primary school environment, teachers are exposed to potential COVID-19 spread from 30 households through each child in the classroom, whereas secondary teachers could be exposed to the virus spread within over 200.

“The fact of the matter is that if teachers are not able to teach because they are sick or exposed, who will teach the children? If teachers are falling sick and if teachers are being exposed to children or colleagues who are ill… then no one will be able to come out to school,” said Redman.

Throughout the ongoing fourth wave, education officials have not closed schools where COVID-19 cases have been confirmed.

But the BSTU president cautioned local authorities to take their cues from Trinidad and Tobago, where overwhelming outbreaks within schools followed the abandonment of basic protocols.

Meanwhile, at a section of the Wilkie Cumberbatch Primary School, which is being temporarily housed at Belleville, St Michael, sources revealed that at least three of the 12 teachers and the two security guards attached to the school, tested positive for the virus.

Barbados TODAY learned that at least four other teachers were awaiting test results, and an entire class was sent for testing along with students from other classes.

Twelve classes housing Infants and Class 1 students are accommodated at the building, which is apparently air-conditioned and poorly ventilated.

Teachers have also expressed concern that some students with symptoms have been reporting for school without being tested.
Still, the source said education officials have denied staff requests to have the school temporarily closed.

“We had a meeting last night and that was one of the items discussed, but I don’t want to go too deep into it yet because we are still doing our investigations,” Lovell told Barbados TODAY.

The BUT president said the challenges with COVID cases in schools are not isolated to any one institution, but teachers were trying to strike the balance between learning to live with COVID-19 and protecting teachers on the job.

“Striking the balance would involve following the protocols wherever possible, but the Ministry has made a decision not to close any schools, so we would want our members, wherever possible, to follow the protocols. But we would also want the Ministry to make sure that they ensure that the protocols that they would have indicated would be in place are in place to facilitate the physical distancing,” he added. kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb