Thousands of nursery, primary and secondary school children returned to the classroom on Tuesday for the start of the Hilary term. Students of Ellerslie Secondary School were not among them as incomplete repairs forced the continued closure of that institution for the remainder of this week.Pupils and teachers of the Lawrence T Gay Memorial School which has been plagued with environmental issues were however back in the classroom, starting the new term the way they ended last term, with some classes relocated to Grace Hill Moravian Church, The Church of Christ the King, at Rock Dundo, St Michael and Sharon Moravian Church, St Thomas. The relocation of classes took place as a result of a reported offensive odour.Principal of the Spooner’s Hill, St Michael school, Brent Blackett, told members of the media just after 9 a.m. that the buses to transport the students and teachers to the various churches arrived in a timely manner and made multiple trips to take students to their classes.�
The Ellerslie School will officially reopen on January 16 for the Hilary term. In a video address to the nation on Monday night, Minister of Education Kay McConney announced the delay, citing unfinished repairs. She said the Ministry undertook repairs over the Christmas holidays, but inclement weather caused some delays. McConney said the principal would communicate with students and parents over the next 24 hours and advised them to check …
When children return to the classroom on Tuesday, it will be under a new National Grooming Policy, an updated dress code for nursery, primary and secondary Government-operated schools. Minister of Education Kay McConney says it was long overdue and updates the previous Code of Discipline and Dress Code which is almost 30 years old. The full policy can be viewed at the Ministry’s website mes.gov.bb or its social media pages. …
Public primary and secondary schools will be fully reopened in Barbados on Tuesday without any Government-imposed COVID-19 restrictions. And Minister of Education Kay McConney says this will also signal a return to both social and physical activities during and after school. For the past three years, schools in Barbados operated under COVID-19 protocols which imposed distance among and between students and teachers, the wearing of masks was mandatory and sanitising …
Human rights activist Felicia Dujon has questioned the handling of the findings of the probe into whether the administering of the controversial Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) survey to hundreds of schoolchildren in October broke any data protection laws.She contended in an interview with Barbados TODAY that the Data Protection Department which conducted the probe should not have forwarded the report to the Ministry of Education which took ultimate responsibility for the minors being subjected to the offending questionnaire without parental consent.“Who is the one that’s going to be responsible for whatever [action is taken] unless the report says no harm has been done or no kind of breaches have been done?” questioned Dujon, who is leading efforts by a group of parents to sue the Government over the survey.