The Ministry of Education on Friday announced that nursery and primary schools will reopen for face-to-face learning on September 6, while secondary schools will open in accordance with the vaccination programme currently being rolled out across the country.
“I think we can read that to mean that we expect those children who will go into (secondary) schools will access this vaccine and get it,” Minister Priya Manickchand told a press briefing at the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD) at Kingston.
Government is currently inoculating children aged 12 and over with supplies of the Pfizer vaccine, which has been approved for their age group. Manickchand has already explained that the doses of the vaccine donated by the US government should facilitate the vaccination of more than 90% of the eligible student population.
Government is also encouraging teachers to be vaccinated and has listed the profession as one of those services whose workers must provide proof of vaccination or regular negative PCR tests before being allowed to work.
Asked if a minimum threshold for vaccinated staff and students has been established for the opening of any one Secondary School, Manickchand explained that the Ministry will be working with guidelines provided by the Ministry of Health. She stressed that while the intent is to have every child access education, attendance at school is a social gathering and is therefore subject to the same health guidelines as any other social gathering.
“Philosophically we believe classroom doors should never be locked to any child. That is the foundation on which we work but all our foundations have been shaken by this virus. We could do only what we are advised by the Ministry of Health and at this point they are uncomfortable with any gathering of unvaccinated persons. It is my impression that they are uncomfortable with opening the secondary school doors without rolling this vaccination out,” the minister explained.
Also explained is that while face-to-face learning will resume, most primary and secondary schools will be utilising a blended methodology with the inclusion of online learning, which will assist in the operationalisation of a shift system for easier social distancing.
At the nursery level, 41 of the 348 nursery schools will open to full face-to-face interaction while the others will operate on a rotation system, which will see year one and two learners attending school on different days during the week.
Each school will aim to offer a minimum of four hours of contact per week, with a ratio of five learners to one teacher. Parents have been asked to partner with schools to not only become familiar with the schedule for their particular school but to assist in the delivery of the curriculum.
Assistant Chief Education Officer- Nursery (ACEO) Samantha Williams explained that all nursery students will receive a home-based learning package with all relevant resources needed for parents and teachers to be able to provide quality education.
Williams encouraged school administrators to pursue a robust sanitation programme and requested that parents work with their children to help them understand not to touch or share the resources in their learning package.
“Parent-Teacher Associations can utilise vaccinated parents to assist with the monitoring or supervision of students when they are at schools,” she added.
At the Primary level, 44 schools will open completely on September 6, while another 413 including nine annexes will operate on a rotational basis.
“Grade Six because of the nature of the class will be attending school every day,” CEO Marcel Hutson shared.
He repeatedly stressed that each school has recommended its own system of operation.
According to Hutson all information for each school will be accessible on the Ministry’s website and Facebook page.
Individualised plans
ACEO-Secondary, June Ann Gonsalves also referenced individualised plans crafted by secondary schools, stressing that these too will be made available via the Ministry’s website, Facebook page and The Learning Channel.
She reported that seven secondary schools will be completely opened for all grade levels, while the remaining 126, including the Practical Instruction Centres (PIC), will operate a rotational system.
According to Gonsalves, students from Grade 9 to 13 (Form 3 to Upper Six) will be required to attend every day so as to complete all requirements including the School Based Assessments for Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) examinations.
Asked by Stabroek News if there exists a ratio of learners to teachers at the primary and secondary levels, Minister Manickchand explained that the general ratio is 20:1 at the lower levels, 25:1 at the mid-levels and 30:1 within the upper classes but with COVID-19 each school has established their own learner to teacher ratio with some establishing ratios as low as 10:1 or as high as 25:1 based on the space available.
Once in the classroom, students will be subject to a diagnostic test and instructed via a consolidated curriculum developed through consultation with international and local teachers.
Head of NCERD Quenita Walrond-Lewis explained that the test will evaluate learners’ understanding of the key strands of the language arts and Mathematics.
“We seek to measure empirically what the learner can do which will inform what the learner needs to know next. The Guyana diagnostic assessment is a two-part assessment which looks at the learner’s psycho-social state and their attitude to the learning space as well as the academic fount of knowledge the learned will return with,” Walrond-Lewis said.
She explained that the consolidated curriculum which will be used nationally will reduce teacher stress and work to bring students to standard without compromising the academic content.
Speaking on the Consolidated Curriculum, Walrond-Lewis said that skills and objectives have been consolidated across grades 1 to 9 in the core subject areas.
“The 38-week curriculum has been compressed to 20 weeks with careful attention to maintain the age appropriate skills children are supposed to have. Each child will start with the work they missed until they get that right before they move on to the next level and that will be repeated across the coming grades over the coming years. All teachers have either been trained or are being trained to deliver this curriculum,” Manickchand explained.
She went on to note that the situation remains fluid as the pandemic develops but for now this consolidated curriculum will be implemented for at least three years.
“The situation is very versatile [but] we are very certain that we missed a day and a term and that’s not easy to catch up in a year. We had a good opportunity to look and see if our curriculum was still relevant and we found a lot of things were repetitive. This year and the next two years at least [we will use the consolidated curriculum] to pick up on the learning which they (lost). This will definitely be happening for the next three to four years. In the meanwhile the government is also revising the curriculum to ensure we are meeting the needs of Guyanese children today,” Manickchand stated.
