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Thwaites supports suggestion to end school year now

Published:Wednesday | April 29, 2020 | 12:11 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer

WESTERN BUREAU:

Former education minister, the Reverend Ronald Thwaites, has thrown his support behind a suggestion by Lynton Weir, the principal of Old Harbour High School in St Catherine, to declare the summer holidays now and resume the next school term in July to make up for times lost since schools closed on March 13, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In an interview with The Gleaner, Thwaites, who is also the member of parliament for Central Kingston, said it would be delusional of stakeholders in the education sector and the Government not to embrace a measure designed to compensate for the disruption to teaching/learning process caused by COVID-19.

“The Government and some of the rest of us are living a delusion to think that education is going on in a fairly normal fashion. It is not,” said Thwaites, in speaking to technology replacing the face-to-face interaction between students and teachers, which existed before the emergence of the novel coronavirus.

“We have to make proper arrangements to make up for the face-to-face school days that we are losing now,” added Thwaites.

Recently, Weir suggested that the Government should allow schools to proceed into the Easter and summer breaks now and return in June, due to the ongoing disruption of the normal educational process.

SCHOOL DAYS LOST

“If it (COVID-19) run very long, greater conversation will have to take place with the Ministry of Education and also the Jamaica Teachers’ Association. Probably the best thing to do is resume school June 1,” said Weir, in an interview with The Gleaner. “The school year is 190 days, and depending on how long it is going to run, we’re gonna lose a lot of school days.”

In agreeing with Weir’s suggestion, Thwaites said he wants the Government to mirror the measures Trinidad and Tobago has taken, where it has written off the rest of the school year ending August 31.

“As an alternative, we should look at the recourse in Trinidad and Tobago, where they are writing off the balance of this school year and declaring that the lost time will be made up between September and December, with the next school year beginning in January, and being compressed between January and June,” said Thwaites.

While noting that the suggestions will have its pros and cons in terms of implementations, Thwaites said it could address the inadequacies of the present reality.

While speaking at a recent COVID-19 press conference in Kingston, the prime minister rejected the suggestion, arguing that teaching/learning exercise is now taking place, albeit with some challenges.

“I am not prepared to concede any loss of a term. I know that education is taking place in the country. We also know that there are areas that are not served by the Internet or access to other remote methods, and we are working with great speed and alacrity to have that done,” Holness said.