The Minister of State in the Ministry of Education also spoke about the recovery effort by the education sector to make up for all those school hours which were lost when schools were closed during COVID.
He said that the ministry's diagnostics indicate that a significant portion of the student population is still behind by over a year:
Reporter
"That would be reducing burnout. And I'm sure you are grateful that you have the full five days of the week"
Dr. Louis Zabaneh, Minister of State/Education
"For sure, because remember, know we also have the severe adverse impact of COVID where, you know, we've done as best as we can with the catch-up program for students in the last few weeks. So, we are going to be wrapping that up soon: eight weeks of work in literacy and numeracy across the country for students from Infant 1 to Standard Two. But we will still need to do more. Our diagnostics showed that students were one year or more behind at the end of this last academic year because of COVID. And so, it is imperative and incumbent upon all our stakeholders, the teachers, the principals, and the management also at the ministry that in this transitionary year for the curriculum, we are fully engaged, that we spend as much time with our students who hopefully will be able to remain face to face as much as possible. Certain high schools I know will be complementing their face-to-face with hybrid with virtual so that students who are behind can get opportunities to catch up. And that is very important."
