Region One reopens schools with no incidents

Region One which has the second highest number of confirmed COVID cases Guyana saw six
out of the eleven schools being reopened on Monday.
A senior education official from Region One speaking to www.aroundtheregions.com disclosed
that while there are three secondary and eight primary tops that will be writing the CSEC exams,
only six of those schools reopened.
The official said that the reason for the other schools not opening is a direct result of the impact
of COVID in those areas, noting that the communities that the other schools are located
continues to register a high number of COVID related cases.
“Based on what is happening in several of the communities, a decision was made to keep those
schools closed so that is why only six of the eleven schools were reopened. The Education
Department along with the RDC through its Regional Chairman is working to address a number
of issues,” the official said.

The Department of Education Official stated that the region has some 1100 students who are in
fourth and fifth forms. Commenting o the reopening of the schools from the three subregions, the
official said; “All the schools opened in the Mabaruma sub region, all the schools opened in the
Matakai sub region, which consists of two schools, while in the Moruca subregion only one
school opened.”
The Education official disclosed that in te Mabaruma sub region there are three schools with all
opening on Monday, two in Matakai and six in Moruca.
“All of the schools could have reopened, however those that were not was because of
precautionary measures and so the department took this decision. We are cognizant of the very
high COVID numbers and we don’t want any unfortunate situation, thus we kept the schools
closed,” the official reported.
The official said the department will continue to ensure that the wellbeing of both students and
teachers remains a priority.
The students and teachers were all given their care packages that the Ministry of Education
provided. The care packages included facemasks and sanitizing materials. Minister of Education,
Priya Manickchand, made the decision to have students from Grade 10, 11 and 12 turn out to
classes in an attempt to complete their School-Based Assessments (SBAs) for CSEC and Internal
Assessments (IAs) for CAPE.