Hybrid Classes Will Resume January 10th
Classes resume next week Monday for tens of thousands of students across the country who attend one of the over six hundred institutions in Belize. A Ministry of Education Transition to Hybrid Learning Report breaks down a detailed plan for safely getting children back into the classroom setting, with both an online and in-person learning component incorporated. Education C.E.O. Dian Maheia says that focusing on the education of the youth must remain a priority.
Dian Maheia
Dian Maheia, C.E.O., Ministry of Education
“We all know how serious the effects have been on our students being out of the classroom now for close to two years. And this is something we have been working toward; this is not a new decision, it is not a rash decision. It’s really been very careful and it’s taken a while for us to get to this point. Where we are now is moving to having our schools return for hybrid learning in January. We have around six hundred schools around the country. Of the six hundreds school so far, as of today – because these numbers keep changing day by day – but as of this morning, we had five hundred and thirty-nine who had already applied for reopening, five hundred and twenty who are approved. We have ninety-seven who had already opened. So, this was between October, and when school closed for December, for Christmas break, we had ninety-seven schools. We do want all the schools to return for some measure of in-person learning. That’s why we keep using the term hybrid because we want to have students on campus, physically for at least a few days of the week for them to be able to have some limited form of engagement with teachers. We recognise that in many of the schools, the physical spacing is such that they can’t all be there at the same time in the same way and maintain social distancing. And so that’s why we understand that many of the schools need to stagger or shift; we keep using hybrid because they are going to be onsite for some of the time and then they were will continuing with distance learning some of the time.”
Close to two hundred of the six hundred are ready to go come January tenth. But, because all schools are not in the same state of readiness, some will be starting their hybrid program on different days.
