Sacred Heart Not Returning to Normal Classes

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit Belize, Sacred Heart College and its Junior College seamlessly transitioned to online classes. Fast track to 2021, the projection is for schools to reopen for in-person learning at the end of August; even as that remains dependent on the COVID-19 situation. So while with President Rocio Smith-Carballo of Sacred Heart Incorporated, she told News Five a meeting will be held with the school management and administration to determine whether they will return to normal classes or have a hybrid approach to learning.

Rocio Smith-Carballo

Rocio Smith-Carballo, President, Sacred Heart Incorporated

“Uncertainty is something that plagues us at this point in time. Sacred Heart College and Junior College, we look at the safety, welfare of all our faculty, our staff, our students, our parents and our community because all of us go back to our families. And of course, we don’t want to disenfranchise any student from an education and at the same time, we want to see how best we can be of help to them. However, I can safely tell you that I cannot see Sacred Heart College or Junior College going face-to-face simply because our population is so high. We have a population of over nine hundred students at the high school and for even half of the population to come on the campus, that is about four hundred and fifty students, which is still a big amount of individuals on this campus, plus the faculty and staff. And we know that with our students, it will be a challenge for them to exercise social distancing; we don’t have the manpower for all of that. For the junior college, I can say that more than likely most of the classes will be online. There might be maybe one or two that might need to go face-to-face because of the nature of the course. And we are thinking if and only if, if the high school will decide to go face-to-face, it will be mostly for our first form students and maybe for our second form students who have not been on this campus any at all. Or looking at safety, we might just maybe look at those students who did not perform well for this past school year and then be able to give that additional assistance to those students.”