Ministry of Education Considers Next Step in Phased Reopening

And, while the Ministry of Education intends to expand its connectivity initiative to more schools in the future, presently attendance rates are increasing. According to C.E.O. Maheia, more and more students are returning to school on a weekly basis. Schools are now requesting that the Ministry of Education take a next step in the phased reopening.

Dian Maheia

Dian Maheia, CEO, Ministry of Education

“We have almost one hundred percent of our schools that have returned for hybrid face to face learning. As a matter of fact we are now starting to get a lot of request to see whether or not we can begin to boost the coming back. What we have seen over the past few weeks is that attendance has increased. The numbers are going down for COVID and numbers are going up in schools. In the beginning, that January tenth, as you guys know, there were a lot of trepidations. We saw people coming back but there was hesitancy, fears. But, what we see is that the attendance rates continue to rise. In high school for example, both rural and urban, we have seen maybe they started off with fifty percent attendance. We are now looking at seventy percent, we are pushing eighty percent now in schools. We really feel like parents are beginning to become more comfortable. Definitely, what we are seeing are a lot of happy students. Students are really enjoying being back. The teachers are grateful, and the challenge is addressing the learning losses now that they are back.”