Hundreds of Schools COVID-19 Compliant

Minister of Education and Youth, Hon. Fayval Williams, says to date a total of 954 of 983 primary and high schools have been approved as COVID-19-compliant by the Ministry of Health and Wellness.

“This means there has been a physical reinspection of our schools for COVID and non-COVID issues,” Mrs. Williams said, during the sitting of the House of Representatives on January 11.

She explained that a COVID-compliant school has wash stations or sinks where the children have easy access to wash their hands, distance markers to make the students aware of how far apart to stand or sit from each other, and an isolation room with its own bathroom facilities, so that in the event a child shows up with runny nose, coughing or with a fever, that child can be isolated until medical help arrives.

“In this environment of the new omicron virus, our priority is to keep our children as safe as we can,” Mrs. Williams said.

She further informed that a manual for the reopening of educational institutions, ‘Emergencies in Education Manual’, is on its third version.

It was published at the start of the pandemic and distributed electronically to all principals and has been kept updated.

“It speaks to the general guidelines for the full reopening of schools. It looks at sanitisation and hygiene practices, management of the sick, protocol for treating with the individuals who are suspected of being infected, wearing of mask, protocols for entry to the school compound and general guidelines to maintain social or physical distancing,” Mrs. Williams explained.

The Manual also looks at scheduling lunch, transportation and contains a section for special education schools, amongst other areas.