Dominica: Education Minister outlines significance of face-to-face classes

Dominica: The Ministry of Education briefed media on March 4, 2022 (Friday) and notified about the commencing of physical classes in the region.

The Minister of education was quoted as, “One focus as we move to face to face is on teachers and students. Special efforts will be made to engage our students so that we can help to build their social emotional skills stadium students need to be able to interact in a safe and stimulating environment to develop their social and cognitive skills.”

While describing the ill-effects of the online classes, the education minister stated, “There are many students disadvantaged by the inconsistent internet services our schools serve as safe and secure spaces for teaching and learning and for students it is a gateway for social interaction and support”.

The Education ministry further stated, “Moreover, first to face learning is needed to prepare students adequately for the CXC examinations which will be held from April 2022. So this approach that we're presenting and we're recommending is a multi-pronged intervention. That is student-centred and seeks to ensure that learners continue to have equitable access to quality education in our guidelines for the safe operation of schools.”

“A number of areas are recommended, highlighted and will covers all schools in the Commonwealth of Dominica including public and private schools and training institutions. As I said earlier there are some risks that we have been considering, these include the spread of the virus among students in the classroom and the spread of the virus to large crowds in confined spaces,” she outlined.

Minister added, “We also consider the risk of the spread of the virus among workers in a room that is shared for a long period of time and we also have to recognize the risk for our teachers and students with chronic medical conditions in our guidelines we identify what are the signs and symptoms of COVID-19, so that persons will be aware of it”

“We consider some core elements, those include safety measures in the environment,” she further mentioned.

While describing the ill-effects of the online classes, the education minister stated, “There are many students disadvantaged by the inconsistent internet services our schools serve as safe and secure spaces for teaching and learning and for students it is a gateway for social interaction and support”.

The Ministry further stated that the precautionary measures that the country has to take safety systems for the school we have looked at health and nutrition.

We are looking at transportation services we are also looking at other support services for our staff and students we must look at our human resources and encouragement of vaccination and constant monitoring and follow-up those are the main core elements of the framework that we are offering there are some guidelines which we refer to as general guidelines but we have specific details for each of the areas, underscored Education Minister.

" I just want to highlight these persons who are unwell must stay home all persons on the school compound are required to wear face masks in compliance with national policies schools are required to inform parents and students about the measures that are in place to allow for the safe operation and administration of the institution to accommodate classes and school related activities so next week is about sharing that kind of information to all our staff all our students all our parents, " education minister.

We have to prepare our schools and our students and to educate them on the importance of ensuring compliance with the protocols why it is we have to do certain things and what it is what risks we want to reduce so we are required to reinforce the need for strict compliance with the guidelines for the safe operation of schools in order to protect the interests of staff and students.

Therefore decisions have to be made in that regard you know so that that will be dealt with in time you know certainly exactly but in terms of our guidelines provisions have been made both for early childhood as well as special educational needs, added education minister.