Since there is a stricter curfew currently in place, and no Movement Sundays,, we asked the Chief Education Officer today if face-to-face schooling will still resume on October 4th.
We caught up with her at another event this evening, and she said that schools and students want to resume in-class learning, which will be safer since the Pfizer vaccine has been rolled out in Belize:
Yolanda Gongora, Chief Education Officer
"The target time is still October 4th. We will be sharing with our schools. If you recall previously when we were trying the face to face return back in April and May we use a green light system, that is the same system we will be using October 4th where our principals, our managing authorities will be responding to questions and if those questions are seen as viable for schools to return, then the schools will be receiving a green light to return. remember the return will not necessarily be all the kids will return face to face. We today have to understand that come now and going forward, our learning will be a hybrid approach and so we want to use the terminology hybrid, because most schools may do shift, will be required to do rotation, some schools may be asking to remain online depending on the infrastructure in their schools, so the intention for all schools and our children are asking to return to school. October 4th is still the targeted date."
Reporter
"What role or what impact does this recent spike in the covid19 numbers nationally play in to whether or not it is safe, given that some parents may feel hesitant to send their children given that you have these daily numbers of covid deaths that keep increasing?"
Yolanda Gongora, Chief Education Officer
"We have in collaboration with the association of principals of secondary schools the role out of the vaccination, so we are very hopeful in that area based on the numbers of students that are vaccinated, can allow the parents to acceded to the children returning to school. We must respect the opinions and the decisions of the parents, if the parents choose not to send their children. Again, we have the distance mode that we will be using, that packages will still be available to our parents, but again, covid is not going anywhere and we will have to learn how to work around it and to address the issues. The longer we keep our children out, the less they are learning and the classroom, the teacher is the best way to provide education."
At this time, it is unclear what policy decision will be taken for those students between the ages of 12 and 17 who did not receive their dose of the Pfizer vaccine.
