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 17^th, 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 17^th, 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.