By Tamica Garnett

MANY schools will be operating with the customary 09:00hrs – 15:00hrs from Monday to Friday as all public secondary schools reopen today. However, some schools will be rotating their students, while some will be using a combination of in-class and online teaching.

After almost eight months of being closed to curb the spread of the COVID-19 virus, schools will, once again, officially open their doors to teaching, when the Grades 10, 11 and 12 students begin returning to school from Monday.

Over the past few weeks, the Ministry of Education (MoE) has been doing countrywide preparations of schools, cleaning the environs and, where necessary, erecting additional handwashing sinks.

Each teacher and student returning to the schools, will be also be receiving COVID-19 “care packages” being distributed by the Ministry, which include face masks, hand sanitisers and vitamin C supplement. Most of the schools have already received their packages.
“For the most part schools are ready. I think regions have put in place what we asked them to put in place for the most part. Where a particular thing wasn’t done in limited circumstances, alternative arrangements were made. Short term remedies exist,” Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand explained.

Manickchand noted that she has been actively corresponding with Regional Education Officers (REdOs) to look into any issues that may arise, particularly with addressing or correcting any false information that may be circulating on social media.

At Queen’s College, the country’s premiere secondary school, Principal, Jackie Ralph, said that all systems were ‘a go’ for the students to return, including the finalisation of the timetable and scheduling of how often students will have to be at school.

“Queen’s College has worked out a shift system for students. We are going to ensure our fifth, lower six and upper six have access to complete their SBAs and IA, and the students will be accommodated on different days, at different times,” Ralph explained.

Ralph noted that the school will be utilising a blended method that will still involve some online aspects, given that the school has been carrying out fruitful online engagements with its students over the past few months.

“We have to pay particular attention to the COVID-19 protocol and want to avoid overcrowding in any class. We have been working online and so our students will continue to use the blended instructional approach,” Ralph said.

The school has some 95 students in Grade 11, and 95 students in the Upper Six, while some 72 students are expected for the Lower Six.
At the West Demerara Secondary School, Head teacher, Harrinarine, said he was expecting a smooth flow of things today, for the return of the approximately 220 students that make up the Grades 10 and 11 at that school.

He said there was enough space for the students and although the school usually has four Grade 11 classes, there will be no more than 15 students per class.

At Ann’s Grove Secondary on the East Coast of Demerara, there will be a daily rotation of the Fifth and Fourth Form students; the Fifth Form students will go to school in the morning hours and those in the Fourth Form in the afternoon.

The teachers will only go to school during periods they are scheduled to teach.
At Port Kaituma Secondary in Region One (Barima-Waini), the school will operate from Monday to Saturday to accommodate some classes. The school’s two Grade 11 classes have been broken down to six classes to accommodate the social distancing requirement.