B.N.T.U. President Questions Belize’s Preparedness after the P.G.I.A. Reopens

Elena Smith

According to Smith, teachers who are willing to return to classes are also expressing concerns for their safety and the safety of their students especially since the P.G.I.A. will reopen a week after schools do.

Elena Smith, National President, B.N.T.U.

“In terms of the safety portion of it, they are very concerned. They are afraid to put their health at risk and that of their students in returning to the schools where these schools are not properly fixed or prepared for re-opening. I think one of the biggest concerns that they are having right now is the fact that a week after school reopens the airport opens. We think that it would have made better sense if schools would have reopened after the reopening of the airport to allow to see how things would work out. People are coming in, what will be the situation? Will we have a case? Will we have many cases before then determining if schools would reopen? That would give us some time to sort of where we are in terms of new cases. So that is another concern for them. So over all Hipolito, I don’t see we are fully prepared. I think that once again we have placed the cart before the horse and we have set a date without ensuring that these things are in order before putting a date. As a union we had ask the ministry to include us in a committee that would be visiting these schools to check to see whether they will be ready or not for the reopening. We were told in that meeting that some managements have made it very clear that they don’t want to union to be a part of some of those things.”