KEVON FELMINE

kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

While ap­prox­i­mate­ly 60 and 70 per cent of Forms Four to Six stu­dents re­turned to school in To­ba­go, many are yet to be­gin class­es.

To­ba­go Of­fi­cer for the T&T Uni­fied Teach­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (TTUTA) Bradon Roberts yes­ter­day said some stu­dents dropped out of the sys­tem a while back be­cause they could not cope with on­line school. Some par­ents are al­so re­luc­tant to send their chil­dren to the phys­i­cal school en­vi­ron­ment as COVID-19 trans­mis­sion re­mains a risk.

“We re­alised that some chil­dren to­tal­ly came out of the sys­tem. Some of those stu­dents were al­ready frus­trat­ed by the sys­tem, which was not de­signed to cater to their needs be­fore they open the av­enue where schools were phys­i­cal­ly open. We al­so have the stu­dents and par­ents who are con­cerned. Vac­ci­nat­ed or not, they are not go­ing out to phys­i­cal schools,” Roberts said.

Roberts said TTUTA is yet to re­ceive any in­for­ma­tion on con­firmed COVID-19 cas­es from schools in To­ba­go since the re­sump­tion.As for the dis­par­i­ty be­tween vac­ci­nat­ed and un­vac­ci­nat­ed stu­dents in schools, he said the ad­min­is­tra­tion does not record this. 

“In some schools, we are now see­ing class­es at 60 per cent to 70 per cent. It varies based on the rur­al and ur­ban schools. Schools in the coun­try ar­eas like Rox­bor­ough, Spey­side and Good­wood, the num­bers are on the low­er end of 60 per cent. The town schools are close to 70 per cent. These are like Scar­bor­ough Sec­ondary, Sig­nal Hill and Bish­op’s High School.”

Some schools al­so main­tain on­line class­es based on their op­er­a­tional plan, with some teach­ers spend­ing a few days op­er­at­ing from home while they go to school on oth­er days.

Based on the lim­it­ed time be­tween the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion’s an­nounce­ment that phys­i­cal school would re­open to all stu­dents from Forms Four-Six to the start date, some par­ents were caught off guard. Roberts said those par­ents had not pur­chased schools uni­forms and shoes.

He said if the Di­vi­sion of Ed­u­ca­tion, In­no­va­tion and En­er­gy had let par­ents, teach­ers and prin­ci­pals know all the de­tails ahead of the re­call to school, this would have cre­at­ed con­fi­dence in the sys­tem. He said the min­istry should have con­tin­ued with on­line class­es for two weeks af­ter the an­nounce­ment so schools could work out their lo­gis­tics. 

It al­so caught the Di­vi­sion off guard, as he said there are still in­fra­struc­tur­al is­sues at sev­er­al schools. The Scar­bor­ough Sec­ondary, for ex­am­ple, re­mained closed for a sec­ond day be­cause the wa­ter pump sys­tem was not work­ing. While fur­ni­ture re­pair was an is­sue, some schools used what was avail­able in the forms one-three class­rooms. Ad­di­tion­al­ly, there are lab­o­ra­to­ries in some schools that stu­dents can­not use.

“There are some things you can­not take the ex­cuse of lack of fund for.”

Calls to Sec­re­tary of Ed­u­ca­tion, In­no­va­tion and En­er­gy Marslyn Melville-Jack were unan­swered yes­ter­day.