The new situation of 5 closed colleges, 2 primary schools and one nursery school is above a challenge. While on one hand the government authorities confirm that the protocols and barrier measures are respected for both students and teaching and non-teaching staff, on the other hand positive cases are in raise in the schools. The concerned ministry considers that the school is not the place of contamination. Parents are keeping mum but deciding at the expense of their children’s education. The Unions engaged in the field of education no longer keep hope in these plans of the Ministry of Education.
UPSEE- “The situation requires a firm and official measure”
“I am among those who strongly support face-to-face schooling. But with 4 colleges contaminated last week and 5 colleges this Monday, it is the gate to multiplication and the situation requires a firm and official measure. Education should not be ensured at the expense of the physical health of the pupil and the mental health of the parent. The ministry must postpone everything, including the start of the school year and the exams,” says Bohjeparsad Jhugdamby, president of the Union of Private Secondary Education Employees – UPSEE. According to him, students do not protect themselves enough and even with the barrier measures provided in the school premises, there are inevitables, “the student or staff could have contracted the virus at home, on the way to school or elsewhere. I have been told that in some schools, teachers and other staff members are reluctant to take barrier measures. No one can guarantee that he will not be a carrier and a transmitter. Being vaccinated is not a guarantee but a precaution!” he warns. He counts on the participation of the PSEA and other Unions engaged in the field of education, at all levels, to come together to make an objective inventory of the situation of students, staff and parents to the Minister of Education for a firm and official decision for the safety of all and for the benefit of the education of students already penalized in their syllabus.
EOU- “a cessation of at least two weeks”
“The situation has gone from Serious to Critical,” says Sooryadanand Meetooa, President of Education Officers’ Union (EOU). “If the ministry proceeds to a cessation of at least two weeks and ensures that the staff’s vaccinations, at least one dose, are done in duly, it would already reassure the population. I consider the vaccine to be first and foremost a patriotic act. Secondly, the government must definitely accelerate the purchase of Pfizer BioNtech, or any other WHO-approved vaccine, for 12- to 17-year-olds and inoculate students. This will ensure the presence rate and that would be beneficial as much to teachers destabilized by the poorly crowded classrooms and disturbed in their programs. It is not advantageous for the student to follow such classes” ; according to him, teachers would voluntarily restrain their programs because they cannot start on a problematic subject without having the whole class. He considers that E Learning mainly benefits those who are in secondary school and who are well equipped with technology and connectivity and with knowledge in informatics. “I am neither alarmist nor unpatriotic, but a realist like others who consider that the situation is too alarming to continue face-to-face even in ‘scaterred classes’ and that the system of ‘E classes’ of the Ministry of Education asks the government to urgently equip all students with the necessary technological tools and adapted connectivity”. He proposes that the Ministry consult on existing registers of disadvantaged students and conduct a new census “of students from families whose monthly income reach the threshold of Rs 18,000 to Rs 20,000”
Parents of students are in panic, both by the aggravating situation of the multiplication of cases and the government’s decision to keep face-to-face. They are many to refrain from sending their children to school, the Camp Diable Government School case, illustrates this fact. “I can only understand them. I do the same with my daughter who is in Grade 7 and who attends an SSS. I prefer her to be safe and sound! ” he admits.
The situation is more worrying than ever! Should schools be closed, the vaccine should be imposed on children under 18 years of age, should staff be vaccinated, barrier measures be better enforced and E-Learning be boosted? Decision to rest with Ministry of Education, Health and the Prime Minister.
