Schools to Close June 18th Due to COVID Concerns

Today, the Ministry of Education announced that face-to-face learning for all pre-primary, primary, secondary schools and ITVETs will come to an end by Friday, June eighteenth.   The ministry issued a memo to school managements today to say that they have made the decision “out of an abundance of caution, coupled with the fact that vaccination rate for teachers is not yet at an adequate level.” The ministry notes that while many schools have successfully reopened for in-person classes with strict protocols in place, they are unable to test every teacher before they return to the classroom.  The memo says that although some three hundred and fifty-two schools were green-lighted for face-to-face instruction it is “not feasible at this time because of the large number of teachers, the waiting time for the test results if PCR tests are needed, and the uncertainty of which teachers have already been exposed, when there are only three weeks remaining for the academic year.” According to the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health and Wellness will continue to conduct random testing at schools, as well as to continue vaccinations at each institution.  The memo also calls on schools to develop special assistance programs and be reasonable with students who do not meet the requirements to progress to the next grade level.