The vaccination drive at Milton Peters College (MPC) and Sundial School (see related story) is likely to raise a few eyebrows, as the issue of injecting persons and especially children against COVID-19 remains a hotly debated one. However, taking the shot is not mandatory for students and requires a signed parental consent form plus photo ID.
The reasoning that some parents may not be able to take their children to regular injection sites make sense. Hopefully more secondary education schools will follow this example.
Recent figures from the Netherlands Institute for Public Health and the Environment RIVM published in today’s edition show St. Maarten with a vaccination rate for 12- to 17-year-olds of 18 per cent, the second lowest after St. Eustatius (15 per cent). Saba had the highest with 88 per cent, followed by Aruba (53 per cent), Bonaire (44 per cent) and Curaçao (30 per cent).
While teenagers rarely get very sick from COVID-19 it does happen and they can – often unknowingly – spread the potentially fatal disease to vulnerable groups. And 394 or 10.1 per cent of the total number of infections were youngsters in St. Maarten, compared to 1,382 (9 per cent) in Aruba, 1,775 (11.3 per cent) in Curaçao and 193 (10.9 per cent) in Bonaire.
But this is about trying to maintain face-to-face education too. Sundial was recently forced to temporarily switch back to online classes because of several positive cases and the irresponsible behaviour of some students.
Experience during the start of the pandemic proved that distant learning has disadvantages especially in households lacking guidance from adults, access to adequate computers and/or optimal Internet. And school also involves working together, being with peers and developing social skills.
Besides, for the island to get back to some sense of normalcy in terms of its economic recovery as well, the more people are vaccinated the better. Please speak to your children about protecting both themselves and others, because ultimately this is about all of us.
