– GTU says Education, health ministries clueless
Thirty-seven (37) students, teachers and dormitory staff have tested positive for the Novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) since the partial reopening of public schools on Monday.
This is according to Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony. While a percentage of the nation’s children are being taught virtually, public schools reopened for face-to-face engagement for students in Grades 10, 11 and 12 on Monday, January 4, 2021.
In an interview with the Department of Public Information (DPI) on Wednesday, Minister Anthony said the majority of the cases were detected in schools’ dormitories.
“We have currently 19 students who have been positive, 10 teachers and eight staff that have tested positive. All of these persons have been identified [and] they are all isolated,” Dr. Anthony detailed. According to him, there is continuous testing being done among students, teachers and auxiliary staff at the dorms.
“As they come out we are testing them and depending on the results we take the action,” the health hinister said.
But General Secretary of the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) Coretta McDonald, in expressing her disappointment, said the actions of both the Ministries of Health and Education have placed students and their educators at risk of contracting the deadly virus.
According to McDonald, better systems ought to have been put in place for this academic term based on the experience during the Christmas Term. “We are back at square one,” McDonald told Village Voice News, while contending that both ministries appear clueless.
According to the GTU general secretary, the majority of students and teachers, particularly those attending schools without dorms, are not being tested.
“Children are coming to school, none of those students are tested before they get into schools; none of the teachers are being tested before they get into schools, and so we don’t know who is coming with what, and who is not coming with what but they are all coming to school because we want them to have face-to-face engagement, and putting themselves at risk, as well as others,” McDonald said as she expressed her frustration.
Further, the GTU General Secretary expressed alarm that students at the various dorms across the country are not being tested within their communities before their arrival, but rather after.
“These students are turning up at these facilities, mixing with their peers while testing is being conducted, and rather than having these students isolated in their rooms while they await the results, it is operation as per norm, that’s why I am going to term it as madness, madness,” she explained.
McDonald said the Ministries of Education and Health must revisit the systems in place to prevent any possible spread of the disease. She emphasised that students must be tested before entering schools and dorms. Additionally, she underscored the need for greater preventative measures to be instituted within schools.
