With schools at all levels now fully reopened, the Ministry of Education is weighing possible options to address the learning gaps and losses learners have experienced owing to the COVID pandemic.
Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand on Tuesday during her visits to schools to engage with students, teachers and staff states that based on initial observation, schools may need to remain open during the July/August period. Schools are normally closed during that time.
This Minister Manickchand said might be necessary since students where away from school for close to two years due to the pandemic.
“We have to find ways to ensure that these children get exposed to the hours of education that they need, that we have parents that are interested and their attitudes are right. We may have to work into July/August.”
She explained that diagnostic assessments have been done to know where students are academically relative to where they need to be so that teachers will know how to engage them in the classroom. Additionally, Minister Manickchand explained that the Ministry produced a consolidated curriculum to have students exposed to what they would have learnt in their previous year.
She said that of the 40 weeks of engagement, the first 20 weeks will be dedicated to content a student should have done in their previous grade/class and the final 20 weeks will focus on what they should be learning in their current grade/class.
“Those changes are necessary if we’re not to be suffering from the effects of COVID five years from now. What we have seen academically is worrying and parents need to pay attention to what we are asking of them so that they can make sure their children are benefitting from the kind of accelerated learning that we need at this stage,” the Education Minister noted.
