‘While the reopening of schools has been a positive experience for my family and if schools close again I’ll riot, I understand it has been an extremely worrying and stressful experience for many others’
By Alicia Chamely
THERE is an unusual sense of calm in my household.
Life seems to have started moving forward again. My children are exponentially happier. Granted there is the still full-on kick and cuff sibling combat, but the tantrums have gone, the separation anxiety has disappeared and all in all, my wildlings are much more pleasant to be around.
So, what has changed?
They are back in school. Finally, after two years they are surrounded by their peers again, they have room to develop personal identities outside of their home and grow socially.
While the reopening of schools has been a joyous occasion for our household, for many others it has not.
Parents have legitimate concerns over the safety and well-being of their children. Many public schools’ basic infrastructure is in shambles. Parents whose livelihoods were impacted during the pandemic are struggling or simply cannot afford to send their children back to school. To make matters worse we are now bombarded with rising Covid cases.
It is despicable that in the two years that schools were closed, the Ministry of Education could not get its act together regarding school repairs and outstanding monies owed to school transportation providers.
You had two years, a gift of a grace period, to ensure every school under your purview was in tip-top shape. You had two years to ensure your debts were cleared. But instead, you waited till the last minute and find yourself surprised that parents are upset over the state of their children’s schools.
This really bothers me, because what has the division of the MOE responsible for school maintenance been doing? They will blame lack of funds, which is where our great minister should have come in and demanded additional funding from her Red House buddies. If there was $15 million for a Sour Taste of Carnival, money could have been found to ensure our children’s education.
Another area the MOE dropped the ball, was understanding and accommodating the financial situation many parents find themselves in.
Here is what worries me. Many parents have complained about buying textbooks for this one term. This leads to the logical conclusion that for the last two terms a substantial number of children have not had the required material needed for the school year. This is terrifying. This is something the MOE should have picked up on and sought to rectify. Whether they alter the curriculum, find different methods of information delivery or work out some sort of low-cost rental system for textbooks, something should have been done two terms ago.
Regarding the rise of Covid cases, it was expected after the Easter holiday. People were gathering, having a jolly good time. What we are seeing now is a result of that and not the reopening of schools.
Guess what? Even if schools were kept closed until September, Covid would still be here and we would naturally see a spike having come out of the August holidays. Any way you look at it, Covid is here to stay and we cannot keep schools closed forever.
People wanted the ease of restrictions, they got it. People are demanding the end of the mask mandate, they haven’t quite got it yet, but this surprises me as these same people are also hemming and hawing over the reopening of schools.
Schools had to reopen because for every one parent that claimed that their child was doing well with online schooling, there were at least ten children who were falling through the cracks.
I really feel hurt for the parents of immunocompromised children or children who suffer from respiratory illnesses and cannot afford to contract Covid. A programme should have been put in place to allow the parents of these children to continue online learning.
Additionally, again I am equally disturbed that nothing has been mentioned about resources being put in place for children who were unable to keep up with online schooling, children who have fallen behind or children who had no schooling at all. What about them? Are we just going to let them fail?
While the reopening of schools has been a positive experience for my family and if schools close again I’ll riot, I understand it has been an extremely worrying and stressful experience for many others.
The reality is we cannot keep schools closed forever, hoping Covid magically disappears, but it is disappointing that our MOE has failed our children in so many ways.
Reopening of School: What Bothers Me
‘While the reopening of schools has been a positive experience for my family and if schools close again I’ll riot, I understand it has been an extremely worrying and stressful experience for many others’
THERE is an unusual sense of calm in my household.
Life seems to have started moving forward again. My children are exponentially happier. Granted there is the still full-on kick and cuff sibling combat, but the tantrums have gone, the separation anxiety has disappeared and all in all, my wildlings are much more pleasant to be around.
So, what has changed?
They are back in school. Finally, after two years they are surrounded by their peers again, they have room to develop personal identities outside of their home and grow socially.
While the reopening of schools has been a joyous occasion for our household, for many others it has not.
Parents have legitimate concerns over the safety and well-being of their children. Many public schools’ basic infrastructure is in shambles. Parents whose livelihoods were impacted during the pandemic are struggling or simply cannot afford to send their children back to school. To make matters worse we are now bombarded with rising Covid cases.
It is despicable that in the two years that schools were closed, the Ministry of Education could not get its act together regarding school repairs and outstanding monies owed to school transportation providers.
You had two years, a gift of a grace period, to ensure every school under your purview was in tip-top shape. You had two years to ensure your debts were cleared. But instead, you waited till the last minute and find yourself surprised that parents are upset over the state of their children’s schools.
This really bothers me, because what has the division of the MOE responsible for school maintenance been doing? They will blame lack of funds, which is where our great minister should have come in and demanded additional funding from her Red House buddies. If there was $15 million for a Sour Taste of Carnival, money could have been found to ensure our children’s education.
Another area the MOE dropped the ball, was understanding and accommodating the financial situation many parents find themselves in.
Here is what worries me. Many parents have complained about buying textbooks for this one term. This leads to the logical conclusion that for the last two terms a substantial number of children have not had the required material needed for the school year. This is terrifying. This is something the MOE should have picked up on and sought to rectify. Whether they alter the curriculum, find different methods of information delivery or work out some sort of low-cost rental system for textbooks, something should have been done two terms ago.
Regarding the rise of Covid cases, it was expected after the Easter holiday. People were gathering, having a jolly good time. What we are seeing now is a result of that and not the reopening of schools.
Guess what? Even if schools were kept closed until September, Covid would still be here and we would naturally see a spike having come out of the August holidays. Any way you look at it, Covid is here to stay and we cannot keep schools closed forever.
People wanted the ease of restrictions, they got it. People are demanding the end of the mask mandate, they haven’t quite got it yet, but this surprises me as these same people are also hemming and hawing over the reopening of schools.
Schools had to reopen because for every one parent that claimed that their child was doing well with online schooling, there were at least ten children who were falling through the cracks.
I really feel hurt for the parents of immunocompromised children or children who suffer from respiratory illnesses and cannot afford to contract Covid. A programme should have been put in place to allow the parents of these children to continue online learning.
Additionally, again I am equally disturbed that nothing has been mentioned about resources being put in place for children who were unable to keep up with online schooling, children who have fallen behind or children who had no schooling at all. What about them? Are we just going to let them fail?
While the reopening of schools has been a positive experience for my family and if schools close again I’ll riot, I understand it has been an extremely worrying and stressful experience for many others.
The reality is we cannot keep schools closed forever, hoping Covid magically disappears, but it is disappointing that our MOE has failed our children in so many ways.