The Ministry of Education (MoE) has announced that secondary schools will re-open for face-to-face learning this month with grades 10, 11 and 12, but unvaccinated students will not be denied entry.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the ministry said that grades 10, 11 and 12 will return to face-to-face learning in October but children who are not vaccinated will not be prevented from entering their school for instruction.
Minister of Education Priya Manickchand told this newspaper that the schools want to be fair to the students who are concerned about their safety, hence, the students will be given the time to be fully vaccinated before the schools reopen. This is based on advice received from the Ministry of Health to give time to the unvaccinated students to be fully inoculated before entering the school environment.
However, the schools will also be given extra time if more students come forward to get their vaccines. Manickchand said that she will personally reach out to students and try to persuade them to take the vaccine because of its importance to their safe return. She added that the MoE has already created a list of schools which will be reopened first according to the inoculation programme carried out.
The MoE said that based on the rollout of the vaccination programme for adolescents aged 12 to 17, grades 10, 11 and 12 students will return to face-to-face learning this month. Each school will be given a separate opening date based on the inoculation of students at the school. For an adolescent to be deemed fully vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine they must receive two doses, 21 to 28 days apart with an additional 10 days after the second dose to be fully protected.
The Ministry noted the following example of how students were inoculated: Queen’s College, St. Rose’s High School and Bishops’ High School received their first dose on September 1, 2021. Those students were administered their second dose on September 22, 2021. Therefore, these schools will be reopened on a date not earlier than 10 days following September 22, 2021. St Stanislaus College students received their second doses before those at Queen’s College and other schools and so they are therefore expected to return sooner.
The Health Ministry has also advised against having every class return, hence, grades 7 to 9 will not be reopened physically at this time. “As it relates to the other levels, the plans that were previously announced stand without variation,” the ministry said.
All COVID-19 protocols such as wearing masks, washing or sanitising hands and being socially distanced will be observed, it added.