GLENYS Hanna Martin speaking at the 2022 School Board installation ceremony recently.
By LEANDRA ROLLE
Tribune Staff Reporter
lrolle@tribunemedia.net
WITH national examinations set to resume on schedule this year, Education Minister Glenys Hanna-Martin said officials are now discussing how best they can accommodate students in quarantine.
“We’re discussing that now,” she said when asked about the issue yesterday.
“Certainly, we would want all of our children to be able to take examinations. If they contract it, it’s not a fault-based situation. So, we’re discussing now how we would deal with situations like that, but, of course, the undergirding rationale would be to do all that we can to ensure that our young people can take their examinations.”
This comes as several schools reverted to online learning after reporting virus cases on campus.
During a press conference last week, health officials confirmed more than three dozen COVID-19 cases among staff and students at schools in New Providence over the last several weeks.
However, the Ministry of Health and Wellness has said the cases did not reflect a community outbreak and as such, did not warrant campus closures.
“COVID still exists in the community so you will have cases and you have seen an increase in the cases,” Mrs Hanna-Martin said of the numbers yesterday. “But from what I’ve been advised, they’re still reduced in terms of what we have seen historically during the course of this pandemic. So, we will continue to be advised by the Ministry of Health.
“As the Minister of Education, I am motivated by the fact that we have to get our children back into schools. We have to get them in 100 percent, but, of course, we have to do it safely. That is where the Ministry of Health comes in.”
Last year, the Ministry of Education permitted public school students under quarantine to sit the 2021 national examinations, but only those who met the criteria and had been approved by health officials.
Eligible students at the time included those who tested negative for the virus and did not display any COVID-19 symptoms or those who were under quarantine but did not live with anyone who was COVID-19 positive.
Data released by the Ministry of Education last August showed improvements in 2021 national examinations compared to 2020, with more students achieving A, B and C grades.
The improved figures came after a grim performance in 2020, which saw worsened results compared with 2019 with fewer students achieving A, B and C grades and more students receiving D, E, F and G grades.
However, there has been continued concern about the pandemic’s impact on education, with data showing significant learning loss, according to education officials.
“The RFP for learning loss is now published,” Mrs Hanna-Martin said yesterday. “It is on our website, but it is internationally published for proposals to assist us with a platform that will allow us to diagnose and create an accelerated learning or catch-up programme for young people so that’s underway and that’s in the public domain.”
Comments
JokeyJack 2 years, 6 months ago
How much positive Covid test selling for now?
sheeprunner12 2 years, 6 months ago
Glenys needs to stop getting in the media and making stupid comments. She has NO inkling about what it takes to run these exams in schools that cannot meet the rules that her own technical staff expect school administration to implement.
She needs to take her grey head out of her ass and face the reality of the schools that exist in this country and the dire situation that 1000s of professionals are forced to slave under on a daily basis. It is worse than the ER at PMH.
tribanon 2 years, 6 months ago
We can only pray most Bahamians never become as dumb as those residing in her constituency who keep voting for this incompetent and most wretched vixen. Just the mere thought that this loud mouthed creature has cabinet responsibility for our country's public education system is more than enough to give anyone a serious case of the heebie-jeebies. Cruel Davis could not have appointed a worse person to have ministerial responsibility for the education of our children.
Cobalt 2 years, 6 months ago
You forgot to mention that some of the blame rest with “we” the Bahamian people as well.
Politicians are elected from a pool of Bahamian citizens. They are reflective of “us” the people. Politicians are incompetent, derelict, and inept because “we” the Bahamian people are incompetent, derelict, and inept. Take a moment to evaluate how the average Bahamian operates in his/her daily life. We are unreliable, we don’t respect time, we are unaccountable, we are dishonest, we are lazy, we are dysfunctional, we procrastinate, we are selfish, we expect something for nothing, we don’t respect the value of a good education, we are unfaithful, we are disorderly, we are rhetorical, we have self-destructive habits, and we are void of any true desire to bring about change. All of these traits sum up our people and likewise our government.
tribanon 2 years, 5 months ago
And the average Bahamian you're unhappy with today is very much the product of decades of corrupt and grossly incompetent elected officials who have failed our society in so many ways while proving themselves completely incapable of governing anything because they only ever care about their own political well-being and could not care less about the people. And Hanna-Martin is very much a case in point.
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