—to address learning gaps, Education Minister says

MINISTER of Education, Priya Manickchand, has said there is a likelihood that schools will remain open throughout July and August as part of efforts to address the learning losses created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Minister Manickchand determined that the usual summer break would have to be missed after she visited several schools to see how students, teachers and staff were coping with the full resumption of physical classes.

She said that the opening of schools might be necessary to cater for the learning loss or gaps that exist because most learners were physically away from school for close to two years.

Minister Manickchand said that many persons do not fully appreciate the impact that school closures have had on children.

“We have to find ways to ensure that these children get exposed to the hours of education that they need, that we have parents that are interested and their attitudes are right. We may have to work into July-August,” she said.

The Education Minister said that diagnostic assessments have been done to know where learners are academically relative to where they need to be, so that teachers will know how to engage them in the classroom.

Additionally, she said that the Education Ministry had established a consolidated curriculum to have learners exposed to what they would have learnt in their previous school year.

She said that of the 40 weeks of engagement, the first 20 weeks will be dedicated to content students should have done in their previous grade/class and the final 20 weeks will focus on what they should be learning in their current class.

“Those changes are necessary if we’re not to be suffering from the effects of COVID five years from now. What we have seen academically is worrying and parents need to pay attention to what we are asking of them so that they can make sure their children are benefitting from the kind of accelerated learning that we need at this stage,” the Education Minister said.

Schools at all levels are now fully reopened with the Grade Seven students and year one nursery children returning yesterday for their first day of classes.

The other grades returned to school on April 25, 2022, and April 28, 2022, due to the Ministry of Education’s decision to have a phased reopening.