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Ministry proposes in-person classes twice a week for most students (in September 2021)
With the exception of students in primary and secondary schools writing exams or those preparing to write examinations in a year or two, almost all other students would report to physical classrooms twice a week.
This was one of the major proposals found in the second draft guidelines for the reopening of schools issued to stakeholders by the Ministry of Education. The document was obtained by Guardian Media.
The other stand out proposal was that parents may be allowed to apply for their children to continue to rely solely on virtual classes when the phased reopening of schools commences, early next month.
According to the 57-page document, which was put forward following stakeholder consultations, last month, parents interested in the option must make requests and justify them to the principals of their children’s schools. Parents must guarantee that their children would have adequate home supervision during online classes and must show that they (the students) are equipped with digital devices and internet connectivity. Students’ performance in online classes over the past year would be considered, with 75 per cent previous attendance and no incidents of previous online indiscipline being pre-requisites. Teachers would also have to recommend such a course.
Ministry approval on a case by case basis would also be required.
The documents stated that Standard Four and Five students in Primary Schools and Forms Four to Six students in Secondary Schools would be required to return to school in September and October. Four Plus students at Early Childhood and Care Centres (ECCC) are also expected to begin classes during that period.
All other students of primary, secondary and ECCCs are expected to be brought out on a rotational basis from October with all being required to attend physical classes two days per week except Infants to Standard One students, who would be only required to attend school one day per week.
The document stated that all students over the age of eight would be mandated to wear masks whilst on the school compound, while students between the ages of three and eight should wear their masks as much as possible especially when having indoor activities.
Schools were authorised to operate within normal school hours, but were given the option to extend hours to assist students, who may have fallen behind due to lack of access to online classes.
https://www.guardian.co.tt/news/ministr ... 59dd79b2f6
If schools cannot follow covid19 safety guidelines with a full school population, a shift system will be put in place for the next academic year.
This was among guidelines in a Health Ministry document issued on Monday.
The cycle system proposed a 50 per cent student capacity, which will mean creating two groups for each class, who will go to school on alternate days.
“A school that has a five day timetable…will then have a ten-day cycle (and at) schools with a six-day cycle, a 12-day cycle will have to be done.”
The cycle will alternate the days each group (labelled A and B) attends classes.
The document said said while group A will continue classes on day one, group B can access online material at home. The next day will be day one for group B, while group A uses online material at home. The following day will be day two for group A, continuing the cycle.
“Should the physical distance requirements at any time be such that the capacity is further limited, an increased number of groups can be formed,” the guidelines suggested.
They also said a "blended learning" approach will also be implemented, so on days when students are home, the regular timetable can be followed. "Blended learning" refers to a mix of learning methods and media.
zoom rader wrote:Shift systems created more criminals with child muddas.
The gangsters we are facing today are a product of shift schools combined with PNM parentageEFFECTIC DESIGNS wrote:zoom rader wrote:Shift systems created more criminals with child muddas.
This is true
redmanjp wrote:so the group that is off still has to go online- are they giving all students laptops?
zoom rader wrote:Shift systems created more criminals with child muddas.
wagonrunner wrote:redmanjp wrote:so the group that is off still has to go online- are they giving all students laptops?
before they get laptops, the students without electricity getting that or nah?
Ted_v2 wrote:Thank god someone said it.
Kids need less idle time, not more.
Yall ever met a 16 year old kid in government schools? they fully dunce and cant take no stress at all, weak mindset.
paid_influencer wrote:I personally support the shift system for this academic year. Coronavirus is spreading like mad in Venezuela and nasty Trinis will bring it across here in a pirogue. We still need to take measures to stifle the spread locally.
I do not support the day on/day off shift system that the Minister of Education is using as an example. I think it is actually very stupid. I would propose a week on/week off system instead.
Most cases of coronavirus develop symptoms within 5 days of infection. The day on/day off system gives 1 day of group separation, which is not enough time to be effective.
I suggest we move to a weekly system for the following reasons:
(1) Saturday and Sunday would be natural "airing-out" period for the school compound between student groups.
(2) The week off allows possible asymptomatic cases to resolve on their own without exposing staff or other students.
(3) Staff would interact with only one group in a given week. This limits spread and also makes contact tracing much easier.
zoom rader wrote:The gangsters we are facing today are a product of shift schools combined with PNM parentageEFFECTIC DESIGNS wrote:zoom rader wrote:Shift systems created more criminals with child muddas.
This is true
bluefete wrote:Schools are supposed to re-open in less than 1 month's time and the gov't is still scrambling to put things in place.
They will wait until the last week in August to make a final decision and then have parents scrambling in crowds to get school supplies.
This Is Really Scary’: Kids Struggle With Long Covid
Aug. 8, 2021
Will Grogan stared blankly at his ninth-grade biology classwork. It was material he had mastered the day before, but it looked utterly unfamiliar.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he blurted. His teacher and classmates reminded him how adeptly he’d answered questions about the topic during the previous class. “I’ve never seen this before,” he insisted, becoming so distressed that the teacher excused him to visit the school nurse.
The episode, earlier this year, was one of numerous cognitive mix-ups that plagued Will, 15, after he contracted the coronavirus in October, along with issues like fatigue and severe leg pain.
As young people across the country prepare to return to school, many are struggling to recover from lingering post-Covid neurological, physical or psychiatric symptoms. Often called “long Covid,” the symptoms and their duration vary, as does the severity.
“My idea of Covid before I got it was, You know what, if I get it, I’ll get it over with and I’ll have the antibodies and I’ll be good,” Will said. “But oh, my gosh, I just never want to go through that again. Never.”
Studies estimate long Covid may affect between 10 percent and 30 percent of adults infected with the coronavirus. Estimates from the handful of studies of children so far range widely. At an April congressional hearing, Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, cited one study suggesting that between 11 percent and 15 percent of infected youths might “end up with this long-term consequence, which can be pretty devastating in terms of things like school performance.”
The challenges facing young patients come as pediatric Covid-19 cases rise sharply, driven by the highly contagious Delta variant and the fact that well under half of 12-to-17-year-olds are fully vaccinated and children under 12 are still ineligible for vaccines.
Doctors say even youths with mild or asymptomatic initial infections may experience long Covid: confounding, sometimes debilitating issues that disrupt their schooling, sleep, extracurricular activities and other aspects of life.
“The potential impact is huge,” said Dr. Avindra Nath, chief of infections of the nervous system at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. “I mean, they’re in their formative years. Once you start falling behind, it’s very hard because the kids lose their own self-confidence too. It’s a downward spiral.”
Will, an Eagle Scout, a talented tennis player and a highly motivated student who loves studying languages so much that he takes both French and Arabic, said he used to feel “taking naps is a waste of sunlight.”
But Covid made him so fatigued that he could barely leave his bed for 35 days, and he was so dizzy that he had to sit to keep from fainting in the shower. When he returned to his Dallas high school classes, brain fog caused him to see “numbers floating off the page” in math, to forget to turn in a history paper on Japanese Samurai he’d written days earlier and to insert fragments of French into an English assignment.
“I handed it to my teacher, and she was like ‘Will, is this your scratch notes?’” said Will, adding that he worried: “Am I going to be able to be a good student ever again? Because this is really scary.”
At Boston Children’s Hospital, where a program draws long Covid patients from across the country, “we’re seeing things like fatigue, headaches, brain fog, memory and concentration difficulties, sleep disturbances, ongoing change in smell and taste,” said Dr. Molly Wilson-Murphy, a neuroinfectious diseases specialist there. She said most patients were “kids who had Covid and weren’t hospitalized, recovered at home, and then they have symptoms that just never go away — or they seem to get totally better and then a couple of weeks or a month or so after, they develop symptoms.”
“We don’t yet have any sort of good predictors of who will be affected, how much they’ll be affected and how quickly they’ll recover,” Dr. Wilson-Murphy said, adding “We don’t have any sort of magic treatment.”
SuperiorMan wrote:How likely is it UWI gonna be online?
SuperiorMan wrote:How likely is it UWI gonna be online?
Habit7 wrote:I will be sending my children out to school and I hope they have it 5 days a week. It is more deleterious to children's social and academic development to have them go another year without in-person education, especially for younger children. We can't be saying vaccinate to operate and when ppl vaccinating, we are moving the goalpost to operate. Covid is here for at least the next decade, we have to confront it and live our lives with guidelines, not fear.
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