–on inspecting schools country-wide for readiness

A TEAM comprising representatives of the Ministry of Education (MoE), the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) and the Ministry of Health (MoH) is expected to shortly begin carrying out on-site inspections of schools across the country to better determine their readiness for re-opening.
This was shared with the Guyana Chronicle by GTU General Secretary Coretta McDonald, who noted that the initiative is awaiting the go-ahead of the health authority.

“As we speak, we are in the process of conducting an outreach with regards to the readiness of schools,” McDonald said, adding:
“The MoE, GTU, and MoH officials are going to be going out across this country, visiting schools with a checklist that will be put together by the MoH. We’re going out there to check schools to ensure that schools have all the necessary resources.”
McDonald explained that the MoH is expected to put together a checklist of all the required measures and systems that will need to be in place at each school, so as to evaluate how many schools may be lacking the necessary systems.

“We’re finalising the pieces right now, in terms of the checklist, and when ‘Health’ says to us it is safe for us to go out there, we will start that. And when we are done, we will make an announcement about it to ensure that the entire nation will feel comfortable,” McDonald noted.
However, with the COVID-19 cases in the country increasingly rising on a daily basis, the uncertainty of when such an assessment may go forward remains high.
Hand-washing sinks that are six feet apart, sick bays, hand sanitizers equipment, paper towels, and covered bins are some of the features, McDonald said, that the GTU will be particularly looking for, even as it awaits the MoH’s checklist.

“We will have a full checklist to use when we go out to the schools to check off on, so we can say for example, ‘Schools in Region Two are ready; schools in Region Three are ready; schools in Region Four are ready’ and so on,” McDonald explained.
Classroom space will also be taken into account to determine class sizes when social-distancing requirements are taken into consideration.
It is the classroom sizes and accommodation capacity that will determine what plan the MoE would implement, going forward, as it pertains to the reopening of schools.

NINE TO A CLASSROOM
“We’re talking about nine pupils being in a classroom at a time; and then we will sit and decide whether we are going to reopen schools for the entire school population, or whether we are going to look at the Grade Six and the CSEC students, or how we are going to work the system to determine whether we are going to do a shift system, or whether we’re going to do it by grades depending on the numbers,” McDonald said.

Minister of Education Priya Manickchand could not be reached for a comment on the assessment activity, however, in previous interviews, the she had noted that the authorities would be working on reviewing and evaluating the situation, with a view to eventually resolving the issue of schools reopening.
Schools in Guyana have been closed since March 16, as part of measures implemented to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, which first hit Guyana on March 11.

Schools in Guyana customarily begin the new school year in September, however, on August 13, the Minister confirmed that public schools will remain closed as the Ministry assess the situations.

Minister Manickchand has been actively familiarising herself with the situation since taking over the ministerial post on August 5, following the change of government.

However, with public schools having been closed for the past five months, stakeholders across the country are anxious for the safe re-opening of the learning institutions, as students are being gravely affected by the learning gap.
The ministry is yet to release any statistics on the exact extent of the impact on students, while throughout the months, MoE officials would only say that assessments are ongoing.

Minister Manickchand said her assessments over the past few weeks have revealed that little had actually been done.
“There was little to no decisive and or coordinated approach in delivering education and doing so safely… Actions that were needed in the months schools were closed were not taken in their entirety, or at all. This is our reality,” Minister Manickchand had said.
Shortly after assuming her post, Manickchand had sought to engage the GTU to be a part of the decision-making process on the way forward for the reopening of public schools.

The GTU has since suggested a November re-opening for students in the older age category, noting that many of the younger children are not entirely capable of adhering to some of the social-distancing requirements.

“We believe that a November opening would be more feasible, giving the ministry time to put everything in place. Whenever the reopening should take place, we should consider the CSEC clases, CAPE and Grade Six. It is not for everyone to turn out; we are not proposing for the entire school population,” GTU President, Mark Lyte had noted.