January Semester to Reopen with Hybrid Classes

For almost two years, children have not been engaged in a regular class setting as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to throw a wrench into any semblance of normalcy. Earlier this year, the Ministry of Education had proposed for a phased approach to return to classrooms, but that was once again postponed due to increasing positivity rates. But with vaccination numbers up and schools ready for reopening, Education C.E.O. Dian Maheia told News Five today that come January, schools will officially reopen with a hybrid form of learning.

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

“Up until the end of November, what we saw was that we had about eighty-five schools across the country who had already returned to hybrid. We had a hundred and seventy who had already been approved for hybrid so the numbers are creeping up. We are doing our work on the ground to approve, to make sure that the schools have the necessary things in place. And some of the schools who are applying now are already applying for January because that works for them which is what we wanted. So come January, the goal is for us to be able to have a hybrid approach across the country for all the levels. So students will not be one hundred percent capacity classrooms one hundred percent of the days, it is going to be staggered schedules shifted; there will still be a combination of distance learning – whether it is paper or its online. But we have to begin to bring our students back.”