Opposition Members of Parliament today again called out the Government for its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic but more particularly its decision to reopen schools when the virus spread is surging.

During a press conference today Opposition Members of Parliament Dr. Karren Cummings, Dr. Nicolette Henry and Ganesh Mahipaul opined that the Government’s decision to reopen schools and its plan to leave schools open amid the surge in cases is very worrying.

According to MP Henry, while the Education Ministry has been banking on UNICEF’s call for the reopening of schools due to learning loss, it has not been following the very recommendations put forward by UNICEF for the safe reopening of schools.

She pointed out that while there has been a learning loss, the reopening of schools must be guided by science.

“In so far as the opening of schools is concerned, we are dissatisfied with the lack of preparedness what appears to be a disorganized approach specifically to the reopening of our schools,” the Former Education Minister said.

Former Junior Health Minister, Dr. Karren Cummings in her contribution stated that the Education Ministry should have crafted a plan with specific undertakings for students to return to school.

She said such a plan would prevent a recurrence of what took place in September when schools were forced to close their doors because of COVID-19 cases.

“The APNUAFC coalition recommends that the Ministries of Health and Education map out a clear path to avoid confusion among teachers and students who would have been evaluated positively for the virus, meaning that such samples should have been given high priority for genomic sequencing so that one can ascertain whether the teacher can return to school like with the case of Omicron 5 days after symptoms or in the case of Delta variant 10 days,” Dr. Cummings said.

Opposition MP Ganesh Mahipaul stressed that enough consultations were not done prior to the reopening of schools and that approach is now causing problems within the school system since stakeholders now have to turn to the Education Ministry for answers and in many cases, answers are not being provided.

“What really is being done about the alarming amount of teachers that are tested positive and what is being put in place and to also call on the Ministry of Education to release the data, provide us with the number that is currently positive and state whether they are isolated at home or elsewhere,” Mahipaul questioned.

He said the Ministry of Education should also provide the data on the number of students that have tested positive for the virus since the reopening of schools on Monday and what systems will be put in place.

In a statement yesterday, the Guyana Teachers Union called for a suspension of face-to-face classes after it discovered that more than 65 teachers and 40 students at various schools have tested positive for the virus in recent days.

The Government has indicated that it has no plans to shut schools down again.

Related posts:

Over 320 teachers and 165 students tested positive for COVID in 2 weeks; GTU calls for 2-week pause in face-to-face classes Some schools suspend in-person classes over COVID concerns 17 schools forced to close doors over COVID Cases Opposition calls for delay in reopening of schools in wake of COVID surge