Classes will resume virtually when the new school term starts on Monday. While I am sure some parents and children are disappointed that face-to-face learning won’t be starting back as yet, with the rising numbers of COVID-19 infections and deaths reopening schools is certainly not the right thing to do at the moment. Some feel with vaccination that in-class learning could happen sooner rather than later but teachers are not being vaccinated in bloc, so I am unsure how this will work.
But even as we seek to keep ourselves safe, both the educational and psychosocial wellbeing of our children remain worrying. Daily I hear from parents who indicate that their children’s performance has dropped. I am even more concerned about the many children who are not accessing any form of education. Yes I know the Ministry of Education is providing worksheets and these can be collected from schools, but there are many children who are not even accessing these and some who are accessing many times are unable to complete the work because it is not understood.
