VIRUS ROLL CALL - Reveal positive students to schools, says JTA boss

Health and education ministry officials have been urged to disclose to administrators the names of students who test positive for COVID-19 close to the resumption of the new academic year so that schools can make preparations to limit the chance of new infections.

The call by Owen Speid, president of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association, comes against the background that only four people are in state quarantine facilities while almost 18,000 are self-monitored at home. Sixty-four of Jamaica’s 821 cases are active.

Students are scheduled to return to classes on September 7 after schools were ordered closed days after the first case of the new coronavirus was recorded here in March.

“Our first focus is the safety of our students and teachers,” Speid told The Gleaner on Thursday.

“We don’t want them to, by any chance, get into school and infect anyone there.”

Speid said that the information would be important to facilitate the needs of affected students.

However, it is unclear whether Speid’s recommendation would be feasible as the Disaster Risk Management Act, which governs the coronavirus policy, outlaws the disclosure of COVID-19 patients’ identities. Many persons who have contracted the disease have suffered stigma and discrimination while others have been attacked or threatened.

SAFETY PROTOCOLS

Guidelines published by the Ministry of Education indicate that the first five days of the new school year will, primarily, be for the orientation of students to heightened coronavirus safety protocols.

From September 14-25, only grades four to six, in primary schools, and nine to 11, in high schools, are to report for classes. Lower-school students should resume classes on September 28.

Twelfth- and 13th-graders are slated to begin face-to-face classes on October 26, but colleges and universities can start before that date.

Speid insisted that the ministry should allow administrators the flexibility to customise their operations.

“If they don’t put out guidelines, it will be chaos. It’s a new ball game now, but it can’t be rigid across the board. Different schools have different cultures,” Speid said.

Acting principal at Clan Carthy Primary, Winsome Reid, says the school will have both face-to-face and online classes come September.

Students will also have to wear masks and have their temperature checked upon entering the compound. Sanitisation stations will be installed and class sizes reduced in adherence with social-distancing protocols.

“Normally, we have 35 students to a room. We can get 15 students in a room at three feet apart. Now, there will be one child per bench,” Reid told The Gleaner on Wednesday.

The school’s acting vice-principal, Michelle Traille-Reynolds, said that lunchtime would see major changes.

“Each grade will now have a different lunchtime, but it will still be one hour. Each grade will have markers to know where to stop in line, but there will only be a few students in line,” she said.

Measures will be implemented to assist students and teachers with adapting to online learning.

“There will be provisions for Zoom classes and downloads. Tablets will be available for students. Workshops have been held to train teachers,” Traille-Reynolds told The Gleaner.

Traille-Reynolds, a parent herself, said that she understands concerns that there will be logistical difficulties.

“Someone will have to supervise. I know it will be difficult, but they will have to put something in place,” she said.

Julian Robinson, member of parliament for St Andrew South East, where the school is located, said that classes in the new academic year would require increased technological tools.

“Teachers will have to double up. Instead of 40 in classes, they will have two classes of 20. We are in a new normal,” said Robinson.

“It’s going to require cooperation from all stakeholders.”