GTU President sends home students – Region 6 Chair

…overall school attendance tops 90%
… satisfactory turnout recorded in Region 10

The overall turnout across Region Six (East Berbice/ Corentyne) for the reopening of schools has been in excess of ninety percent.

Schools were reopened only for students sitting the National Grade Six (NGSA), the Caribbean Secondary Examination Council (CSEC) and the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE); and classes are being held only on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. There are 52 primary and 17 secondary schools across the region.
Students sitting the NGSS have two more weeks until those examinations are held, according to the Education Ministry. Regional Chairman David Armogan is of the view that children are prepared to attend school, “Because they only have about two weeks left, and they have a lot of revision that they will need to catch up with,” the Regional Chairman told this publication.
At the regional level, the Chairman said, they are putting safety first. Facilities have been installed at schools to ensure that students wash their hands regularly, Armogan noted, and most of the students have been wearing their face masks in the classrooms.
Flowing an announcement by the Ministry, that schools would be reopened this week, the Guyana Teachers Union called on teachers not to attend school, sighting the pandemic as its major concern.
“The teachers have turned out to ensure that the children will have some level of preparation to write this exam. The only school that we had some issues with is the Port Mourant Secondary School. The head of that school is Mark Lyte, and he is the President of the Guyana Teachers Union. The children turned up, but only five teachers turned up, and so they made some arrangements to do the online revision,” Armogan explained.
Students attending that school were advised not to return to school when they turned out on Monday, because teachers at that school were supporting the call by the GTU.
Meanwhile, Chairman Armogan, in giving his opinion, said two weeks of revision might not be sufficient. “But it might help in some way to bring the children up to speed,” the Chairman argued.

Region 10 has satisfactory turnout
Meanwhile, in Region 10, a relatively satisfactory turnout was recorded at schools on Monday, as students writing examinations returned to classrooms in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Regional Education Officer (REDO) Rabindra Singh described it as being “exceptionally fantastic” for the first day following almost three months of closure of schools. A total of 814 candidates are registered to write the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) Examination within the Region, and hundreds more are registered to write the CSEC and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE).
On Monday, students from Linden were observed with their face masks on as they headed into school compounds, some even being accompanied by their parents.
In respect to preparation, Singh said all of the schools have been fumigated, given adequate cleaning detergents to sanitize, and compounds have been weeded. Citing previous issues with malfunctioning and faulty sanitary block facilities, the REDO is advising the Education Ministry to install industrial toilet facilities. He noted, however, that the few functioning facilities can be efficient to serve the limited number of students presently attending school.
“We have a high turnout of teachers. Some schools, like One Mile, had forty-something teachers. Regma (had) almost the entire staff turned out, Mackenzie High had a lot of teachers… In almost all the schools, the entire staff (showed up) …just lent their support,” he noted.
Having visited several schools, Singh said the students appeared a bit tense, but he noted that students are placed six feet apart in classrooms, with not more than nine students in each classroom. He explained that, in some cases, schools’ auditoriums are utilised, and he has advised that a PA system be used in such cases. (Utamu Belle and Andrew Carmichael)