Last night, you might have also heard the Prime Minister announce that his government is pushing for the resumption of classes on Monday.
Today, some of those educators reached out to our newsroom to complain. In their opinion, the government officials are behaving insensitively to the enormous amount of work it will take for teachers to prepare their classes for school next week, especially since Belizean hurricane victims had to use those classrooms as shelters.
The suggestion to 7News is that a better decision would have been to call for schools to reopen on Monday, EXCEPT those in the Belize District.
For context, here's that announcement on school during yesterday's press conference:
John Briceno - Prime Minister
"All schools across the nation will return to regular classes on Monday, November 7th."
Francis Fonseca - Minister of Education
"Of course, there's a part of our discussion in Cabinet. We talked about returning to classes, which is an absolute priority for us at the Ministry of Education and for our government. As you know, many of the schools are used as hurricane shelters. So, obviously, we've asked NEMO that those schools that are used as hurricane shelters, that between now and Monday, that they make every effort to have those schools, all of the people who are there in those shelters, that they are taken elsewhere, and all the adequate arrangements are made for them. So, we are absolutely committed to having all schools reopen on Monday, November 7th. So, we're asking that between now on Monday, those principals and teachers, especially where your school has been used as a hurricane shelter, that you go in to check on the condition of your school, and make sure that it is properly prepared and ready for classes on Monday."
As you heard, the NEMO says that the hurricane shelter victims who cannot return home will have to receive housing aid from the Ministry of Human Development.
