Education minister toils with idea of school remaining open during July/August to address worrying learning loss/gaps

Grade Seven and the Year One nursery pupils turned out today for their first day of classes, thus joining students at all other levels who returned last week for the full reopening of school. The other grades had returned to school on April 25, 2022, and April 28, 2022, due to the Education Ministry’s decision to have a phased reopening.

Education Minister, Priya Manickchand, today visited schools to see how the students, teachers and staff are coping with a full return to school. It was noted that based on initial observation, Manickchand said that schools may need to remain open during the July/August period when schools are usually closed.  The minister pointed out that this might be necessary to cater for the learning loss/gaps that students are suffering from due to being away from school for close to two years due to the pandemic.

The education minister noted that many persons do not fully appreciate the impact that school closures have had on children. “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,” Manickchand stressed.

Minister Manickchand 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. The minister disclosed that the Ministry produced a consolidated curriculum to have students exposed to what they would have learnt in their previous year. She pointed out 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,” Manickchand revealed.