BVI News

Online students have daily attendance requirements! Weekly printed material for non-online kids

Students using the online learning platform will have a required number of live online sessions they must attend per day while non-online students will receive weekly learning material from their respective schools.

Education Minister Dr Natalio Wheatley gave that indication while outlining some of the measures that will be taken during the new academic year for both students and teachers.

He said teachers may be faced with having the two categories of students in their classroom. 

“There should be at least three live sessions per day for each student to the designated online platform. Other sessions for the online student should be in the form of seatwork using textbooks and uploaded material on Google Classroom,” the minister said.

“For those available for online learning, it is expected that teachers will utilise the curriculum guides, lessons and assessments that will be developed by each grade level,” he added.

Printed material for non-online students

On the other hand, Dr Wheatley said there may be students who will not be part of the online learning cohort because they do not have the required electronic devices or sufficient internet connectivity.

For those students who will not be available online, Dr Wheatley said teachers are expected to prepare printed pockets for them to be able to access education.

“Packages should be available at the schools and parents should collect them from the child’s school. The completed work should be returned to the teacher, feedback received, and the parent should collect a new pocket every Friday,” the minister said.

711 registered applicants

In the meantime, Chief Education Officer Connie George said the Ministry of Education had received a total of 711 applications for the 2020/2021 academic year.

“The applications included primary and secondary applicants for both public and private school. Every child registered in any school in this territory should have applied for access to education through the ministry,” George said.

“Of the 711, we have 222 at the kindergarten level … The remaining numbers of the 711; the majority of them were matriculating to Grades 6, [and] from Grade 6 to Grades 7. The remaining numbers were spread across grade levels in the primary and secondary schools,” she stated.

While some private schools will commence teaching this week, classes for students in public schools are scheduled to begin on September 21.

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8 Comments

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  1. Duh says:

    Y’all know that homeschool time doesn’t have to be the same time as school time? You only need 2-3 hrs of school at home to make up for the 6.5 hours at school. One on one teaching needs way less time. This is why parents want to do their own at home with proper home schooling curriculum which doesn’t waste as much time as these people trying to turn a school day into a online thing.

  2. Crazy says:

    Fix the internet before you start talking about online classes. It is frustrating for the kids therefore can effect the way they learn. I have seen my child got so upset at the slow internet because it keeps buffering or dropping the web page. This leaves the child frustrated and therefore unable to learn or focus at the task at hand.I think it is ridiculous that you speak about online classes with such poor internet! Come on do better!

    Like 16
    Dislike 1
    • My take says:

      The third anniversary of Irma reminds me it’s three years since most of us had landline internet.
      What is going on?

    • Yep says:

      The BVI is a leader in the slowest most expensive internet worldwide. They figure you’re happy with top ups and just enough internet for facebook.

      Like 12
  3. Up Grade says:

    The most frustrating thing for me is the constant buffering while you are online.

    Like 7
    Dislike 1
  4. Who Cares? Not Business for sure. says:

    I effective policies; pandering to industry, their bottom line, encouraaging greed and taking the general public for granted and economic slaves.

    Those are the reasons we have poor, inferior, worthless nonproductive internet service, but the highest cost prices in the Caribbean if not the world.

    Lax and even paid off officials and poor telecommunications policies and enforcement have the territory in the positions it finds itself today relative to mass and effective and worthwhile internet service and communication.

    Imagine, your relative, aunt, uncle, brother, mother, father or other are sick. You know he/she is ill, but you refuse to takehim;her to the doctor. That is the state of the relationship between the telecom providers and the government, policy and law makers. A timid well paid bunch they.

    You think they and the business community care a red cent about children and their education? Think again.

    Imagine, if. every business in theis territory contributed $200.00 every two weeks for one month to a fund to purchase computers to aid the children and help learning to continue, every single home and child would have a computer in it. It can be done. Theeir is no willto get it done.

    Education means nothing to them. Only haording vast amounts money matters.

  5. Expat says:

    What plans are in place for students whose parents are locked out??

    • SMH says:

      So who is taking care of them while their parents are locked out? If I can’t come home, sorry, they will have to stay locked out too! So you go try again!

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