Teachers are Getting Vaccinated as Part of Back-to-School Push

There is a concerted effort by various government ministries to get public officers vaccinated.  While the approach has been met with opposition in some corners, by and large teachers are getting their jabs ahead of the reopening of schools in August.  According to the Minister of Education, everyone will be prepared to return to their classrooms at the start of the new school year.

Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education

“Everybody is ready, as far as we are concerned.  Obviously, you know, as we go along between now and the end of August, we’ll have to continue to monitor it very closely and ensure that everything is in place.”

Reporter

“Will you be requiring the management of these schools, the management or the principals, to check if these teachers, as front liners, are vaccinated or if they’re taking their tests every two weeks?”

Francis Fonseca

Francis Fonseca

“Yeah, we’re going to have to rely on the managing authorities to check with them.  It’s a challenging issue but the message we want to send is a clear one.  When our teachers are vaccinated everyone is safer.  They are safer, their fellow teachers are safer, their students, their students’ families.  So we want to say, in a very clear and resounding way to our teachers please, let’s get vaccinated.  You know, it’s been very positive so far, we’re up to now seventy percent of our teachers vaccinated, at least with the first shot.  So that’s positive, we’re moving in the right direction, our target has always been to get around eighty percent of our teachers vaccinated by the time we reopen for face-to-face instructions in September.”