Although eager for the resumption of full face-to-face classes, the Barbados Secondary Teachers Union (BSTU) is concerned that the three feet social distancing protocol will not continue in schools when the new term starts later this month.
The COVID-19 protocol was discontinued nationally earlier this month, but BSTU president Mary Redman said teachers were seeking to find out from the Ministry of Education why the protocol would no longer be observed in educational institutions given that several primary and secondary schools are overcrowded.
“Teachers, like students and parents, are eager for a full face-to-face return to school but their concerns remain that this return is done in a safe environment for all users of the school plant. With that in mind, members have stated that the social distancing requirement should be maintained and we have given the reasons why,” she said in an interview with Barbados TODAY on the heels of Chief Education Officer Dr Ramona Archer-Bradshaw advising principals that schools would go back to pre-COVID-19 pandemic scheduling when the academic year begins on September 19.
Redman insisted that consideration should be given to the fact that some classrooms were densely populated as they were not designed for the large numbers they are currently accommodating.
She indicated that teachers were also concerned that the national isolation period for people who test positive for COVID-19 had been shortened, especially with evidence showing that many children who were infected with the virus were asymptomatic.
The BSTU head pointed to the practice of parents sending their children to school even when they were showing signs of sickness.
“Now with the shortened period of isolation, children who are in households where persons are infected but who may be asymptomatic, those children may be sent to school . . . . During the last school year, we too frequently experienced that – where children showing symptoms of COVID were sent to school,” Redman said.
However, she said, the BSTU took “some measure of comfort” in the Ministry of Education’s assurance that the Ministry of Health would continue to work with principals who report positive COVID-19 cases and unwell children, and that the Ministry of Education intended to have meetings with the unions every two weeks to review what was happening in the schools.
“We are also comforted that the safety monitors will remain in place at the primary schools so that there is assistance in that regard as it relates to maintaining order,” Redman said.
The union boss said teachers also lauded the decision that mask-wearing indoors would continue to be required at all times.
In her circular to principals on Wednesday, the Chief Education Officer said that in addition to the school day returning to normal – from 9 a.m to 3 p.m. for some schools and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. for others – all extracurricular activities will resume in full and general assemblies will return to the pre-pandemic arrangements.
Shortly after the circular went out to school heads, the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) said it would be monitoring the situation.
“We will be working with the Ministry of Education and will continue to work with the stakeholders and if any issues arise during the school time we will seek to have them rectified,” BUT president Rudy Lovell told Barbados TODAY on Wednesday night.
Earlier in the week, he had called on education authorities to ramp up security at schools, amid concerns about the possibility of gunplay reaching the island’s educational institutions.
He noted that some primary schools were without security guards, which left students and teachers exposed if the violence reached school compounds.
Redman told Barbados TODAY that the BSTU was also concerned about the level of violence in society, even though all of the secondary schools have security guards.
