Education C.E.O. Breaks Down Phased Return of Face-to-Face Instruction

As we reported on Wednesday, cabinet has approved the phased return of face-to-face instruction of schools at all levels and sectors across the country.  Since September of 2020, secondary and tertiary students have been attending virtual classes, while learning packages were distributed to primary schoolers.  But beginning April twelfth, schools who believe that they have all the requirements set in place can commence in-person learning once again.  If they miss that date, there is also an opportunity on May tenth, six weeks before the close of the 2020 school year.  That aside, all institutions must reopen for some level of face-to-face instruction at the start of the 2021 school year in late August, early September. The school’s management simply needs to apply to the Ministry of Education for approval.

Dian Maheia

Dian Maheia, C.E.O., Ministry of Education

“We are not saying that all schools will be opened on April twelfth. That is not the case. What we are saying is any school that is ready, any school that feels that we have everything is place and we want to begin to bring our students back can begin to do so in phases. There is a form to be filled out and it collects first the demographic of the school so we know what district you are in and what’s your level. And then it asks the school to give us information on how they want to return; so what groups will come back. And the groups – it’s at the discretion of the school. If it is a high school, for example, the high school can choose to bring back fourth formers first or it can do first formers because first formers have never been on the campus of their school. Or a primary school might say we will bring back standard six students or we will bring back standard one students so we can do a literacy screening and start to work with them to see how well they are reading. Or schools can also choose to bring back maybe the students who are the weakest academically because they are going to need the most support to be brought back up to level. Or the school might decide that we will bring back all the students, but we will do it in shifts. We cannot say for example we have a school with five hundred students and we are going to open the gates and five hundred will come back every day from eight to three cause that’s not going to happen; that’s not going to be allowed.”