After more than a year of primarily virtual teaching modalities, Education Minister Fayval Williams is reporting that approximately 120,000 students have become or remained unengaged by learning activities.

According to Williams, these students have not been “engaged online, they are not watching TV, they are not listening to the radio, they are not opening their books, they are not in contact with their schools; even though teachers try to find them, they can’t find them”.

In light of this, the minister said initiatives were introduced to engage these students.

One such initiative was the launch of a mobile intervention programme in January, when more than 129 schools had approval for face-to-face operations, that involved the dispatching of instructors into communities to find students and engage with them face to face in groups of five, for approximately 90 minutes twice per week.

This initiative unfortunately came to a pause with the withdrawal of face-to-face classes in March, but Williams says the programme will resume as soon as possible.

“We know that there are many challenges facing students and parents, we know that not everyone has proper connectivity and even in cases where they do, they may not have the money for data plans…and so our plans are to begin (the intervention) again as soon as we are able to,” she said while addressing a virtual post-Cabinet briefing today (May 5).

Face-to-face classes will resume for students set to sit exit examinations at both the primary and secondary levels next Monday (May 10), following the implementation of a number of infection prevention and control measures.

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