Govt also asking private institutions to stick with virtual schooling for the time being
NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Minister of State for Education Zane Lightbourne advised yesterday that the ministry does not foresee the opening of schools to face-to-face as COVID-19 cases continue to increase.
Speaking to reporters outside Cabinet, Lightbourne sought to explain why the blanket decision also included schools on the Family Islands that have not seen the same spike in cases as New Providence.
“We are aware that there are some islands that are requesting a different mode of opening in operations,” he said.
“All during the holidays, we have been in meetings and discussions concerning this.
“Really, it’s the health experts advising us on it.
“We don’t want to put [anyone] at risk, especially our young people, our children.
“We know how critical it is to be fully face-to-face, to have education in this modality to be delivered, but we honestly don’t want to take the risk if we don’t have to and if health is telling us there is a risk, then that is how we are proceeding.”
Last week, officials advised that the reopening of schools will be postponed for two weeks due to the recent spike in COVID-19 cases.
Public schools were set to reopen for hybrid learning on January 11.
As it stands now, because of the spiking cases, we are not looking to open face-to-face at this time.
– Minister of State for Education Zane Lightbourne
However, the country began seeing record cases just days before the Christmas holiday and recorded some 330 cases on Christmas Day. Since then, that daily record has been surpassed with 520 cases being recorded on Thursday.
The Ministry of Health reported another 289 new infections on Friday, 249 cases on Saturday and 477 on Sunday.
As of January 2, there were 26,011 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country, of which 3,203 were active.
Lightbourne yesterday reiterated the ministry’s decision to take two weeks to do a proper assessment before possibly setting a new date for school to be reopened.
“As it stands now, because of the spiking cases, we are not looking to open face-to-face at this time,” he said.
“So, we are going to go fully virtual and also ask for the private institutions to do the same.”
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