THE reopening of schools was given the greenlight under the latest COVID-19 Emergency Measures that were gazetted on Friday.
The announcement comes following a week-long consultation series that the Ministry of Education (MoE) held with teachers, parents and other stakeholders, from each of the education districts, to discuss their concerns and answer questions that they may have on the partial reopening of schools.

The gazetted measures noted that, in addition to complying with mandatory measures listed in the notice, schools will also have to comply with any guidelines or instructions issued by the MoE.
“Schools may be re-opened by the Ministry of Education subject to compliance with the measures under this Notice and the MoE may issue guidelines or give any instruction to minimise the risks of coronavirus transmission in schools,” the COVID-19 Emergency Measures (No. 11) reads.

Schools in Guyana have been closed physically since March, as part of a slew of measures to curb the spread of the COVID-19 virus, after the first case was recorded in Guyana on March 11.
Though the schools have remained closed since, the ministry, nonetheless, officially began re-engaging students, virtually, in September, using a multifaceted approach. Nonetheless cognisant of the learning loss and disadvantage facing the students, the ministry has been actively assessing schools and addressing deficiencies for an eventual reopening.
However, for some weeks now, teachers at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) level have been lobbying the ministry for permission to return to school so that they can conduct face-to-face teaching and properly assist students with their School-Based Assessments (SBAs) and Internal Assessments (IAs). As such, the ministry began looking into considerations of reopening schools for these students first.

During discussions with parents, Education Minister, Priya Manickchand, had explained that, for the opening, the ministry will not be rolling out any standardised plan for all schools.
Each school will be expected to craft, and submit to the ministry, a proposal that best suits it, based on the number of CSEC students and space available to adhere to social distancing and safety protocols.

“We don’t want for the MoE to do one size fits all. We’re saying to schools set your timetable. One school may want some students from 1pm to 5pm, or want students to come in on Saturdays. It may say some students come Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and other students come Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. We are leaving it up to the schools,” the minister had said during a meeting with parents earlier this week.

Works have been ongoing at several schools across the country to build water troughs and sinks for sanitisation purposes.
No official date has yet been announced for when schools will be reopened; however, at several schools, students and teachers had taken it upon themselves to begin returning to the school buildings, out of desperation to their needs.