All schools to remain closed in the BVI
All schools in the British Virgin Islands will remain closed to students during the first phase of government’s internal reopening of the territory which runs until June 2.
Premier Andrew Fahie made the announcement during a COVID-19 national address recently.
He said: “During this initial internal opening, I wish to say here that Cabinet also decided that schools would remain closed to students. But teachers, in a limited capacity, can access schools and engage in online instruction.”
Governor Augustus Jaspert, in the meantime, said Cabinet would review the position on schools weekly to make future decisions.
Last month, Cabinet had initially agreed that all private and public schools, pre-schools, daycare centres and extra-curricular activities were mandated to close with effect from Thursday, March 19 for a period of 14 days, in the first instance.
Since that announcement, Education Minister Dr Natalio Wheatley had stated that both public and private educators in the territory were scheduled to be trained in alternative learning platforms to better equip them for remote teaching during the pandemic.
Subsequently, the Ministry of Education had said they would conduct a territory-wide survey evaluation to gather information for the continuity of their education plan.
According to the Ministry, the evaluation will help them to determine how well students will be able to access online classroom platforms while schools remain closed.
These online platforms include Cisco Webex, CXC Notemaster, Flow Study, Google Classroom and Class Dojo.
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As a parent, I was not planning to send my child back to school for the rest of the school year. I am not a bad parent but I am afraid to send my child back to school due to this virus. The teachers will have to come up with a on line program or find a way to get homework packets sent home for the week, and turned in on Fridays.
Some houses have only one computer but more than one child who may need to use the computer at the same time for online instruction. With so many children at home and adults in the household off from work, some houses are not conducive to online education. Online instruction, while the only alternative available in these trying times, is simply no replacement for face to face classes. Let the children rest their minds. This period dealing with Covid-19 is stressful for them too. Resume classes on 1 June for 8 weeks til the end of July. Forcing online education may just be too much for some kids and some families at this time.
Common sense! And, except for high schoolers, it should be the dominant working idea moving forward.
Great idea, I know some kids don’t have access to internet or have a laptop at home, maybe the teachers can come up with a plan to have online classes with the students who have the above mentioned Monday, Wednesday and Friday for 30 minutes and send a home work packet to ones that don’t have access to the above mentioned and have the packets returned on every Friday of the week.
Good idea but how will the home work get done if the child didn’t get to learn it from the teacher? Which means the parent will be doing the work instead of the child. How about pre-recording the class sessions and it can be forwarded in group chat, that way parents can watch it with the kids on their phones if they don’t have a laptop, tablet or computer to use. #ijs
As a parent also, I have this fear about my child going back to school. Before my child set foot back in the classroom. The virus has to have passed and every school have to be sanitized from top to bottom inside out. I am looking into home schooling.
Where is the minister for education? Sad to say but Walwyn would’ve been more visible in a time like this.
I’m not coming here for a bashing; maybe some assistance as to how I’m to proceed. I have to work and all the child care places are closed. I’m a single parent so where do I leave my child. My job doesnt allow kids and family members are working. So how do I go about doing this?