By Elesha George
Education Minister Daryll Matthew said it is not feasible for his ministry to allow teachers to simultaneously hold both face-to-face and online classes, in an effort to accommodate unvaccinated students.
“The ability or the capacity just has never been there to do that, so it’s just one or the other and it has been widely accepted by all experts including some of those protesting that face-to-face is the best and most effective way of learning,” he told Observer.
The government was hoping to institute remote learning which would allow unvaccinated students over the age of 12 to continue their curriculum on the Google Classroom platform. However, the minister said this is unlikely to happen given the ministry’s limited resources.
“Our education system and most education systems around the region, if not all, do not have the capacity to do face-to-face and online learning at the same time. It is tremendously taxing on the teachers; the infrastructure is simply not there to do both at the same time,” he explained.
Since announcing mandatory vaccination for students aged 12 and over, the government has been faced with the decision of how it would move forward with offering wholesome education.
Parents, including those who picketed the Ministry of Education on Tuesday, claim that Google Classroom is not effective but they are not comfortable with having their children vaccinated.
It has created an impasse regarding the future education of the nation’s youth during this pandemic.