October 4th - that's the date the government is looking at for the reopening of in class learning. Now, this may seem far-fetched with the rapid increase in cases and the new variants, but with the Pfizer vaccine, children ages 12 to 17 can be protected against the virus. So while distance learning will be starting next week for high schoolers, and the week after for primary schoolers, the government is hoping that by October, a large percentage of children have received at least their first jab of Pfizer and hybrid learning can resume.
Today the Prime Minister explained that they will be ramping up the vaccine campaign for children which will be followed by addressing the issue of the large number of school dropouts since the start of the pandemic.
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister
"The idea is that the Pfizer vaccines are coming in today. We're getting about 111,000 doses and the idea is that we're going to aggressively make these vaccines available to our students ages 12-17 and the idea is that at least if they can get the first dose, we can have enough of them to get back to school. There may be a few parents who don't want their children to get vaccination and that's their right and probably that child maybe would have to do learning online but we need to get our children back to school. I mean you hear it, I hear it everyday at home, the emotional toll that our children are going through wanting to go back to school. I know a lot of kids that started crying when they hear school isn't opening so we have to do everything to get them back to school."
Courtney Menzies:
"Sir the dropout rate for high schoolers and I believe even primary schoolers is extremely high right now and we've seen lately that a lot of children are being killed out in the streets, or even being shot, they're innocently part of this gang war. Your response to this where the percentage of dropout rates is so high leading inevitably to crime."
"That is reason alone why we have to do everything possible to open schools. Then once we open schools, we have to go and find those kids who are not going to school and get them back in school. I was speaking to the minister of education and he said while he was talking to Maud Williams school, the teachers were pleading, we need back our children, they refer to them as their children, back in school. A lot of them are not coming back. So I think the next step is that once we open up and settle in is to go and find those children who are not coming back and do everything to bring them back into the classroom."
And in terms of regulations, the PM mentioned that Cabinet is looking at implementing a time limit on the sale of alcohol. Starting at 6pm, stores will no longer be able to sell alcohol to the public.
