Education
Thousands home in Virtual School until February; Senior High only back on Monday announced TCI Education
#TurksandCaicos, January 15, 2022 – On Thursday, the Ministry of Education announced that the majority of the 7,400 students in the TCI will remain out of classrooms until February, unless there is a satisfying drop in the Covid-19 cases.
“Coming out of our consultations with the technical advisors in the Ministry of Health and having considered all of the variables, the Ministry of Education wish to inform the public that Phase 3 of the Roadmap to return students to face to face classes will commence on Monday, 17th January. In this phase high school students in Form 5/Grade 11 and students in Grade 12/Sixth Form will resume face to face classes. In addition, children enrolled in Day Care Centres that are registered with the Ministry of Education as Day Care Centres may continue in a face to face mode.
Students in all other grades will continue virtual classes until Friday, 28th January 2022,” said Minister Rachel Taylor, who delivered the hard news in a press event Thursday (January 13) morning.
Only fifth and sixth form high school students will be back in classes on Monday (January 17) and that is primarily driven by the facts that one, these youngsters have critical exams for which to prepare and this cohort of students have the lowest Covid-19 infection rate. All other students, over five-years-old will remain out of schools and on virtual learning.
“I would like to inform the listening public that, based on our data, the rate of infection among secondary school students is low in comparison to that of primary school children. Hence, these findings support the Ministry of Education’s decision to return students of Form 5 and 6 to in person teaching, because we anticipate that the older students will exercise more adherence to the COVID 19 Health Protocols,” said Mark Garland, Deputy Director of Education.
New, in an effort to fend off COVID, that students can be randomly tested if their parents sign off on a consent form to be provided by the MOE.
The planned antigen testing is for students returning, on January 17th, to the classroom.
“In preparation for the return of the senior students, schools will arrange classrooms to achieve maximum distance between each student. The Ministry will be seeking parental consent to test students randomly so as to maintain as safe an environment as possible for teachers and students. If a student has any flulike symptoms they must remain at home until the symptoms have subsided. If a student tests positive for Covid-19 or is a member of family where another member has been placed on quarantine, the student is to access classes online until a quarantine order release has been issued. Parents of students who will be returning to face to face classes are urged to adhere to this protocol to mitigate the spread of the virus.”
The ministry said they will repeat what happened at the start of the 2021-2022 academic year, train teachers to conduct the rapid antigen tests.
“Next week, that is the week beginning January 17th, two teachers from public schools on Grand Turk, South Caicos, North and Middle Caicos will be trained to use the Antigen Test, as a result all government schools will have teachers who are equip to administer Antigen Testing. Private Schools who are interested in having their staff
trained, kindly speak to your school’s supervisor so we can see how best we can accommodate you,” said Mr. Garland.
Licensed and registered daycare centers will carry on as they have been; open to children up to five years old.
“In addition, children enrolled in Day Care Centres that are registered with the Ministry of Education as Day Care Centres may continue in a face to face mode. Students in all other grades will continue virtual classes until Friday, 28th January 2022.”
The ministry has asked employers to work with staff who will need to manage the virtual learning of their children.
Telecoms companies: Flow and Digicel and two resorts: Pine Cay and Amanyara were thanked for their support in the area of internet connectivity, internet affordability, provision of devices to hundreds of children including a new investment from the Pine Cay project which supplied over $18,000 in internet services for the next 30 days for some 750 students.
All were labelled platinum partners with Education by Minister Taylor.
Dana Malcolm
Staff Writer
Three boys were injured and visitation at the Cheshire Hall Medical Center in Providenciales was suspended for about 18 hours following a school brawl on Wednesday afternoon at the Clement Howell High.
“At Clement Howell High School, the safety and well-being of our students are of utmost priority. We are taking this incident very seriously and are currently conducting a thorough investigation to ascertain the root cause and circumstances that led to this regrettable situation,” The Ministry of Education said in a press release Thursday Morning.
It followed reports of a large fight that began to come in early Wednesday morning with residents reporting not just the police but the presence of an ambulance on school grounds.
By 2 p.m. communication came from the TCI Hospital that they had suspended visitation; an action usually reserved for the aftermath of violent events.
The hospital did not say why it was closing its doors, only indicating that it was for the safety of its patients and staff as well as their families.
The Ministry cleared up some of what had happened in their statement indicating that the injured students, one 15 -year-old and two 16-year-olds, had been taken to the Cheshire Hall Medical Centre for treatment.
“Contrary to reports circulating on social media, there were no further incidents at the hospital, however, as a standard precautionary measure, the hospital went on lockdown mode,” it said.
When Magnetic Media contacted the police around 4 p.m. Wednesday to find out what caused the ruckus they told us they were still on scene. Speaking to media later on they revealed the cause of the fight was still unknown but that they were using video evidence and interviews to piece it together.
Videos, shot by students, were shared with the news team, showing the extent of the fighting.
In them a large knot of boys is seen in multiple videos, some throwing punches, some kicking and pushing and some others trying in vain to separate their schoolmates. A lone white clad individual, possibly a security guard, is dragged along in the melee of fighting teens. Some are seen brandishing what appears to be rocks, which could have been used as weapons.
There were several mobs where fights broke out; mostly boys but also girls involved.
By news production time, no news had come from police of any arrests made but the hospital resumed regular operations on Thursday morning around 9:30 a.m.
The brawl comes just weeks before the Reaching the Streets initiative which is aimed at tackling violence and criminal activities in teens and young adults.
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