Education Ministry to set up E-Covid Management Task Force

To help to bring greater clarity to the road map for schools’ reopening, The Ministry of Education, Youth and Information announces the creation of an Education Covid 19 Management Task Force (E-Covid) chaired by Minister, the Honourable Fayval Williams.

The E-Covid Task Force will arrive at a consensus on the reopening and management of schools amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

This was announced by Minister Williams at a meeting today attended by Minister of State, the Hon Robert Nesta Morgan, members of the executive of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association lead by President Mr Jasford Gabriel, Immediate Past President Mr Owen Speid and Secretary General, Mr Byron Farquharson, as well as senior officers of the Ministry.

The E-Covid Task Force will comprise representatives of stakeholder groups in the education sector including the JTA, Jamaica Association of Principals of Secondary Schools, the Joint Committee for Tertiary Education, Jamaica Union of Tertiary Students, the Ecumenical Education Committee, UWI Guild of Students, National Council on Education, the Jamaica Independent Schools Association among others.

During today’s meeting, Minister Williams assured Mr. Gabriel and his team of the Ministry’s commitment to maintaining robust and open communication with the JTA.

The discussions focused on the infrastructure in place at schools to allow for online and remote learning as well as the administrative protocols, which schools will have to implement for the new school year.

Minister Morgan reiterated the Ministry’s commitment to have a comprehensive solution covering health, education and technology to ensure that students, parents, teachers, administrators and other stakeholders will remain safe and engaged.

For his part, Mr. Gabriel noted that Jamaica is facing challenging times and commended the Education Ministry for the efforts made to train teachers for online teaching, the preparation and sharing of the Education-in-Emergencies Manual and provision of material for sanitisation in schools among other things.