EDITOR, The Tribune.
The mission statement of The Ministry of Education & Technical & Vocational Training, Bahamas is “To provide ALL persons in the Bahamas an opportunity to receive a quality education in an interdependent changing world.” I cannot think of a more true example than the world we live in today.
However, despite the cries and concerns of so many parents, teachers and students, children are still not back in the classrooms.
The hold up seems to be the The Ministry of Health and Wellness Bahamas. They will not give approval to the MOE to let the children back to school. Yet the Bahamas can receive thousands of tourists a day, fill the hotels, shop at the malls, go to the gym, dance at nightclubs and eat at restaurants. But, according to them, it’s too dangerous for schools with proper procedures and policies in place to have learners on site.
So we sit at home in isolation. Deteriorating. Watching our children morph into zombies staring at screens for 6 hours a day. The effort of encouraging our children to go outside and play, now seems awfully ironic as they are forced to “tune in”. Government schools have not had a live lesson in almost 2 years - many of those kids willl fall into the gap concluding their journey of learning. Why is nobody doing anything to open the schools?
Please see the footnote of the 2nd photo from the Ministry of Education’s website. They have responsibility for more than 50,000 K-12 students in 170 institutions in the Bahamas (as of 2019).
Let me repeat. 50,000 students.
No one is in a classroom.
I would also like to add that one of their goals is to raise the graduation rate from 50%. How do they plan to accomplish this if they can’t even host a school day,
Office of the Prime Minister - The Bahamas Can you not see clearly? This is a crisis. This is our future. We are topping the list of the last 6 countries in the world to still have not returned to face to face learning.
No more politics, no more agendas. Enough. If we can’t do it on our own - please be big enough to reach out to the rest of the world and ask for help. This country depends on it.
LAUREEN SINGH
New Providence
January 15, 2022
Comments
ohdrap4 2 years, 10 months ago
I agree the schools should open.
They could be. If only the covid karens would give up their militancy and remain quiet.
Those who cannot go to work where there are unvaccinated may stay at home.
Those who cannot send their children to a school where there are unvaccinated , keep them home.
Somehow the message that the new wave does not result in increased hospitalizations and deaths, and that vaccination does not mean protection is not getting through.
If some one has symptoms,let that individual stay home for 5 days, just like they would if they had the flu. /not this business of closing the school for 2 weeks.
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