And while these few tablets should help some students cross that digital divide - some teachers are saying that the paper packages from students that they are handling could be giving them COVID.
That's the case made yesterday by the President of the Belize Teachers; Union and today Chief Education Officer, Carol Babb, said that the BNTU;s concerns are unfounded.
Yesterday, president Elena Smith stated that the Union had initially asked for teachers to work from home for their safety, but that request was shut down by the National Oversight Committee.
Now, teachers have begun to report infections, causing schools to close for sanitization purposes, which means that students cannot receive their educational packages. Smith is still advocating for teachers to work from home, but Babb insisted that teachers need to be at work to accommodate the children's educational needs.
Carol Babb, Chief Education Officer
"I am not a medical doctor but Dr Manzanero commented on Facebook and he said there is no truth to that; they don't have any evidence, that's just a comment. So I think you shouldnt make comments like that without doing the research. So according to Dr Manzanero, he doesn't believe that teachers can get - I'm not saying it's impossible, but I strongly believe before you make strong statements like that, you should do the research. We advise teachers to hand sanitize, maybe even wear gloves when they're giving out these packages. So we ask them to be careful. The Ministry of Education, along with our partners, we have given them sanitization supplies, and if schools want, we can still give to them. It's still available."
"We are having a meeting tomorrow with Dr Manzanero. I have asked him to a meeting so that he can explain that having teachers in school is safe. Most teachers are in a classroom by themselves. They don't have any children at all, they are by themselves in a big classroom. I think they might be more at risk even being at home because they're with more people."
"I just want teachers to know that I know that everybody has fears, I have fears too, but this is the new normal. You are here today, Courtney, you have to work too. But we have to do our part, we need to secure ourselves, we need to practice safety measures. If everybody stays at home what will happen? The children deserve a chance."
On the other hand, Babb is applauding teachers who are going the extra mile to ensure that their students do not fall behind academically.
