Education Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly brought refreshing news to some sectors of the society yesterday, with the announcement of a return to in-person schooling for all Forms Four to Six students — vaccinated and unvaccinated.
Speaking during a media briefing, Gadsby-Dolly revealed that all students in this range can return to classes on Monday. The Minister did not give full details of the plan but it represents a major shift from what was previously being weighed.
Only recently, the Minister had resisted calls for unvaccinated upper school students to return to classes, while also announcing the prospect of a possible return for Forms One to Three students.
Yesterday’s announcement, therefore, meant an agreement for the full return of the upper school students while maintaining online classes for the lower school. It is, therefore, certain that debates on the best way forward will continue to rage.
To be certain, however, it will never be possible to appease all stakeholders in the current scenario, since the COVID-19 virus is not going anywhere soon.
Some medical experts, including our very own paediatric specialist, Dr David Bratt, has dedicated several columns to dispelling the notion that children should be denied physical schooling due to the risk posed by the virus. Dr Bratt has noted ad nauseam that the statistics, both globally and locally, do not support the argument that significant numbers of children are severely affected or dying from COVID, and this should not be used in arguments to deny them proper schooling.
Of course, there is also the running argument by education experts that the lack of in-person schooling robs children of a significant element of their overall development, the effects of which we are likely to see decades from now.
Ultimately, it is perhaps this factor that should weigh most significantly in how Trinidad and Tobago’s education sector goes forward come Monday.
The world will have to learn to live with and this country is no different. Therefore, it seems a more practical approach that the education stakeholders come up with a seamless system that entails getting students back to physical classes in the safest possible way. This will no doubt entail catering to the issues of spacing within all schools and connectivity for the online facet for the lower school student. It will undoubtedly need the financial input of the ministry for those schools that cannot put the infrastructure in place to give students enabling and safe environments to learn in.
Vaccinations remain the best tool we have against fighting off severe attacks of the virus and this newspaper continues to urge citizens to access the vaccines we have available. However, we also cannot continue to deny students their right to a proper education either and an extended online teaching method is certainly not the way.
As such, it is our hope that all the stakeholders, the Ministry and T&T Unified Teachers’ Association (TTUTA) in particular, will put their heads together to make Monday’s process work and to develop a blueprint from that exercise which will enable all our students to be back in classes by 2022.