Last Friday, the Government of Guyana announced that all schools, aside from those that have effectively been re-opened, will stay shut until the long stretch of September.
Guyana’s Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand said, “We have taken a decision based on the advice of the Ministry of Health to remain closed for the rest of the school year (or) academic year, which ends around the end of June (or) the first week of July,”
Several schools in Guyana have been completely closed since March 2020, because of the limitations forced by the (COVID-19) pandemic. In November 2020 notwithstanding, Grades 10, 11, and 12 students were permitted to plan for the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) examination.
“We will therefore remain closed for the month of June except for those classes that have already returned to the classrooms…we are going to remain closed for the remaining days in May and the months of June, July, August for all of the classes that have been closed,”Manickchand said in a live update on her Facebook page, encouraging individuals to exploit the public authority’s immunization program.
Manickchand added that, “If persons are responsible in getting vaccinated…we’re going to be able to resume a state of relative normalcy. We expect therefore to be able to reopen schools in September 2021 to every grade level and we will work very hard to make sure that happens.”
The Education Minister said that the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA)- scheduled to be composed on August 4 and 5-could be affected by a potential change in the date of the CXC’s assessments.
The Barbados-based CXC body is as of now reevaluating the date it will have its assessments, The Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) assessment and the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations (CAPE) are scheduled to be held between June to July.
“If CXC changes their date, it would impact significantly on the date of our NGSA,” she said, adding “as it stands now, I encourage NGSA students, teachers and parents to prepare as though the exams are going to happen in August”.
With additions from CNW
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