Back to school!…Most students to return to face-to-face learning from today

Jan 03, 2022 News

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Kaieteur  News –Amid a deepening Covid-19 pandemic, with the new variant – Omicron – threatening, the Guyana Government said all public schools across the country will reopen today for face-to-face learning.
However, not all of the students will be required to attend school every day. According to the Ministry of Education, students in Grades Six and in Forms Two to Six are scheduled to return for face-to-face learning every day of the week. Students in Grade Seven will resume classes on January 10 but on a rotational system.
According to the ministry, nursery school students would be returning to school today but would continue to attend classes on a rotational basis. The ministry noted that most nursery school students would be taught four hours per day. At the primary level, the ministry stated that all classes will resume today but Grades One to Five will attend school on a rotational basis. Though children will be indulging in face-to-face learning, they will also be engaged in online learning.
“If all students can be accommodated in a school, in accordance with social distancing guidelines, then all students can attend, every day. Schools will use a rotation system only if all students cannot be accommodated in accordance with social distancing guidelines,” the ministry pointed out.

As stated in the schedule, Grade Six students must attend school every day. For the secondary level, it was revealed that classes for Grades Eight to Twelve students will resume from today also. “Only face-to-face classes will be offered. Face-to-face classes will be held every day for everyone. There will be no rotation,” the ministry highlighted.
At an event in Region Three, the Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, mentioned that the Ministry’s move to have these students return to school every day is to ensure they finish the school’s curriculum in time for their examinations.
“We can’t finish a curriculum and if we can’t finish the curriculum, we are failing you, it means that you are going into the exams room unprepared and so next year, come January 3, grades 8,9,10,11 and 12 will all be expected to come out to school fully,” Manickchand had explained.
The minister said that the majority of the children in Grade Seven were not yet 12 years, to be eligible for their vaccine so a different plan was to be put in place for them to attend. As reported on, vaccinated or not students are still allowed entry into their respective schools. The Education Ministry concluded that if a parent chooses to not send their child to school, then it is the parent’s responsibility to ensure that their child is engaged in learning using the resources by the Ministry, which are available on the its website.
A recent World Bank Report flagged Guyana for having one of the lowest levels of educational engagement in the region during the pandemic. Titled “An Uneven Recovery: the Impact of COVID-19 on Latin America and the Caribbean”. The Bank cited Guatemala, Guyana, and Belize with only two-thirds of school-age children engaged in some form of education. Many countries, are highly reliant on remote learning options to keep children engaged, such as Chile, Peru, Panama, and Ecuador, the Bank also said.
According to the report, most children are engaged in some form of educational activity in the region, although engagement levels (and quality) vary considerably across countries, ranging from 64 percent in Guatemala to 97 percent in Chile. In most countries, engagement rates (including in-person attendance and remote learning) are below pre-pandemic attendance levels. Region wide, engagement in any education activities is below the pre-pandemic attendance rate.
This suggests severe learning losses and an increase in dropout rates, with grave implications for the accumulation of human capital. According to the Bank more than one year into the pandemic, only 23 percent of students in the region were attending school in person. Vaccine deployment and government policies differed greatly across the region, explaining these differences. Educational engagement in Ecuador, Peru, Paraguay, and Chile has been mainly virtual, as schools remained closed for the most part. On the contrary, in-person attendance was more common in the Caribbean and Central America. Children in wealthier households, measured by the number of assets, are more likely to be engaged in schooling, but their attendance is also mostly virtual. Lower engagement in learning activities and low face-to-face attendance pose significant risks for children’s learning outcomes and human capital accumulation. Recent estimates reveal that students in the region lost between 12 and 18 months of schooling. Those from low socio-economic levels were particularly affected, which suggests long-lasting negative effects on social mobility and inequality.

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