Just days into the new school term, COVID-19 outbreaks have forced the closure of 17 schools across Guyana, according to Education Minister Priya Manickchand. She made this disclosure during an interview at the sideline of an event held at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre.
After being closed for more than a year, some schools in Guyana reopened on Monday, September 6 for face-to-face classes under strict COVID-19 guidelines. The Education Ministry has made it clear that teachers returning to school must be vaccinated or present a negative PCR test taken within seven days.
But with teachers and students testing positive for the deadly virus, several schools were closed within a week. Minister Manickchand explained that these schools were closed in accordance with what the Health Ministry requested. She, however, clarified that not every school is “closed completely”.
“If a headteacher did not come into contact with anyone and she is positive, then there is no need to close the school except for sanitisation. Once that is done then the schools can be reopened. If the Headteacher was in touch with 10 teachers, then they need to quarantine.”
“So, it is different circumstances for each school,” she said while adding it is hoped that students from closed schools are being engaged in online learning and provided with worksheets. The Minister disclosed that over the past year, unfortunately, many teachers have contracted COVID-19.
She, however, noted that these teachers were given full support from the Education Ministry. “We have worked very hard to support [them] by making sure that contact tracing was done in an organised way…where we took on the burden of making the arrangements. As well as support being given to the teachers in the form of a care package,” the Education Minister added.
Speaking specifically on the closure of the 17 schools, Minister Manickchand pointed out, “every country in this world [that] has found a solution to get their children back in the classroom has had to deal with very similar issues.” She said that those teachers who tested positive did not contract the virus at school.
Nevertheless, she said that these teachers have either received or are in the process of receiving a care kit from the Ministry. She said that the Ministry has been constantly doing contact tracing and making arrangements for teachers to be tested and vaccinated.
Dropouts
The Education Minister revealed that hundreds of primary school students dropped out of school because of the pandemic. In fact, the school dropout number at the primary level is at least 1000.
As for the secondary schools, Manickchand said that many students signed up to write CSEC and CAPE but did not show up. “They are already in the backdams,” she said.
According to her, although the ministry is finding ways to curtail the learning loss brought on by the COVID-19, the school dropout numbers continue to rise. “We can’t be in a place where we encourage black market education. If we do, we would be failing to respond as a ministry.” She said that teachers and parents have agreed that children must be engaged in face-to-face learning.
“In this last year, we tried very hard and in difficult circumstances to continue engaging our children. Yet we have seen significant learning loss. Yet we have seen dropouts at the primary level….We are beginning to see and feel tangibly the effects of this school closure that has been predicted by UNESCO…”
“We can’t afford to lose our children. We simply can’t. It would be us dooming them to a life of poverty and hardship. Because we all know that the one sure way to be comfortable and have plenty and be able to hear, understand and interpret things for oneself, the only sure way is through a solid education.”
As such, she said that the ministry will work along with the relevant stakeholders to find ways to safely engaged children as the pandemic is going nowhere. Although there is a prediction that the world might get a break from the pandemic by next year August, Manickchand pointed out “look how far off is that.”
Schools in Guyana were reopened based on individual assessments. Already, the Education Ministry has reported that the reopening has seen a high turnout among teachers and students. The Health Ministry has advised the Education Ministry that it would be better to have students fully vaccinated before they return.
The United States Government, recently donated to Guyana, 146,250 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine which is being used to vaccinate children ages 12 to 17. And according to the Health Minister Dr. Frank Anthony, there are enough doses to immunise the adolescent population.
