On the fourth day of the 2021 resumption, there are four colleges outside the Red Zones which are being disinfected, this Thursday 08 July, namely SSS Saint Aubin, GMD Atchia State School in Port Louis, Simadaree Virahsawmy SSS in Rivière du Rempart and Sir Leckraz Teelock SSS College in Flacq. They will remain closed this Friday as well and will resume on Monday, July 12.
Big panic
This is a new blow for this back-to-school project of the Ministry of Education. With 4 cases detected outside the red zones, the seed of panic is germinated in the minds of the whole population! The student at Simadree Virahsawmy SSS is in Grade 7 and the other three in Grade 11. With them, according to the established measures, all the students of these concerned classes will have to be in isolation, observed and subjected to a PCR test. How were they contaminated? The question is unanswered for now?
VPM Dookun- Lutchoomun: “… from existing clusters“
The VPM and Minister of Education Leela Devi Dookun Lutchoomun in her statement to the newspaper Le Matinal stated that: “These 4 new detections stem from existing clusters. Strictly, with our measures in force, they have not been contaminated on the premises of these schools. As promised before the resumption, in the slightest case, the parents of the students are informed of the situation by the respective schools, the schools in question are closed, followed by disinfection of the premises, and the screening of the staff members and students concerned. The Ministry of Health will take over and decide on the protocol. The affected schools will resume on Monday, July 12.”
To date, 11 government schools have been closed. The Vale Government School has not reopened since the start of the school year because a teacher, carrier of the Virus, had worked for admissions. This caused all staff to be quarantined in a hotel in Calodyne. In the Red Zones, we have the Vallée-des-Prêtres Government School, Jean Lebrun Government School, Morcellement Raffray Government School, Harryprasad Ramnarain Government School and the two Special Education Needs Schools, the Islamic Cultural for Disabled Children and Century SEN School.
Lack of Responsibly and pedagogy and training
Asked about this brutal turn, Bohjeparsad Jhugdamby, President of the Union of Private Secondary Education Employees – UPSEE, reported on a reality “It was not unpredictable. If face-to-face is maintained, the health of students is at risk and if we continue with e-learning in these conditions, education is at risk“.
According to his observations, children remain vulnerable in contraction and transmission of the virus due to lack of responsibility towards the pandemic situation, they are now more exposed “at home, from home to their bus stops or train station, on the bus, in various shops, in the streets or places where they go… They can contract the virus anywhere and transmit it anywhere! It must be admitted that since the Ease of Restriction on July 1, people have relaxed, even in a mode of carelessness ” he said.
Regarding online education, this teacher in Economics, remains sceptical “Online studies work, but rather for tertiary students. If E-learning becomes the solution, both teachers and students, according to their levels of understanding, will need to receive proper training on how to conduct online courses, keep the classroom at bay and do a proper follow-up that will replace the case-by-case process. For students, the training will be to teach them how to follow a class online. In addition, the government must make a big effort in terms of computer equipment and technological tools. Not all students are adequately equipped and do not have a suitable connection. Internet Packages are awfully expensive for some. Will this system benefit only the wealthiest in the end? Furthermore, why the government and their developers have not yet created a platform dedicated to E-learning where every move and gesture of the student during the class will be in real time? Won’t Supervision be more fruitful? Zoom, Office 365 and WhatsApp help for sure, but their effectiveness remains questionable for this goal of the Ministry of Education in the management of this crisis», he concludes. He throws the ball at the Government to score its own goal!
