Amid the calls from students, parents and teachers for a return to face-to-face teaching normalcy, Prime Minister Andrew Holness has advised that the doors to physical classrooms will reopen for students sitting exit exams on Monday, May 10.

Addressing the House of Representatives on Tuesday (May 4), Holness indicated that upon an observance of the challenges students set to sit exit examinations are faced, and in particular the submission of Student-Based Assessments, a decision was made to resume face-to-face classes for these students.

He said, “based on the SBA readiness survey conducted on April 8 only 15 per cent of the CSEC schools and 26 per cent of CAPE schools have over 70 per cent of SBAs completed”.

Given this, “face-to-face engagement for students preparing for the 2021 sitting of the exit examinations constitutes a timely and necessary intervention to better enable students to adequately prepare”.

For this reason, “the Cabinet has… given approval for the resumption of face-to-face instruction as of Monday, May 10, 2021 for those students sitting the PEP Grade Six Ability Test and those in grades 11 – 13 to sit the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE), City and Guilds and the National Vocational Qualifications”.