The Ministry of Education on Friday reiterated that the re-opening of Secondary Schools for face to face teaching will be based on the national vaccination programme for adolescents across Guyana.
It said in a statement that the advice received from the Ministry of Health is that it is better to allow students to be vaccinated and be fully inoculated before returning to the school’s physical environment.
For an adolescent to be deemed fully vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine they must receive two doses 21 -28 days apart with an additional seven to 14 days after the second
dose to be fully protected. This would mean that the different secondary schools will
return to face to face instruction on different dates.
An example of this would be students of Queen’s College, St. Rose’s High School and the
Bishops’ High School were vaccinated on September 1, 2021. The students there were
given September 28th as the date their second dose will be administered. Therefore,
these schools will be reopened within seven to 14 days after the second dose is
administered.
According to the Education Ministry, each secondary school will be informed of their respective reopening dates. As it relates to the other levels, the plans that were previously announced stand without variation.
The school term starts on Monday, September 6, 2021. Where schools are not reopening
for face to face instruction they will be engaged online or otherwise. Parents are
encouraged to visit the Ministry of Education’s website to see the reopening plan for the respective schools.
The ministry is encouraging as many parents as possible to consent for their children aged 12 to 17 to receive the vaccine which will serve to protect them from the effects of COVID-19. It is also imploring with parents themselves and teachers who have not yet been vaccinated to get immunised in order to protect each other.
