The 2020/2021 schoolyear begins today in St. Maarten – sort of. The original decision had been to open schools on August 10 as planned in a regular way, but the recent coronavirus spike prompted Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sports (ECYS) Rodolphe Samuel to announce this would be mainly online and later if needed.
He acknowledged possible challenges, including lack of adequate Internet and electronic devices at home. A survey done when the pandemic hit last March into the need among students for such is to serve as one of the tools to help address this issue being experienced in many places all over the world.
A suggestion might be having local telecom providers use mobile units to facilitate free Wi-Fi during school hours in less-fortunate areas where the problem is known to be most prevalent, if required on a rotational basis. One could also use existing local television channels and sets present in more households to teach lessons as done, for example, on the Dutch/Flemish network BVN during the lockdown, although that in principle allows only one-way communication.
During Thursday’s presentation of his “Education Continuation Plan” to the Central Committee of Parliament the minister made clear that the individual school boards could still apply for physical attendance with protective measures rather than distance learning or a combination thereof. The latter “blended” alternative and a corresponding mixed schedule was chosen by School Board for Secondary Education SVOBE at Milton Peters College (MPC) and Sundial School.
All this variation can obviously be confusing, so it remains important to communicate intentions effectively and in a timely manner with both teachers and parents. There is also no sense in rushing into one or the other system without being well-prepared. One must keep in mind that not all households may have an adult readily available to stay with and look after especially smaller children.
As a matter of fact, some think simply postponing the reopening of schools altogether for a few weeks to be made up with less vacation would have been the preferred option, in terms of uniformity and clarity. On the other hand, there is no certainty the island’s COVID-19 situation will improve by then.
Affording the individual school boards space to determine how and when they can best resume classes indeed seems like the prudent thing to do under these unprecedented circumstances. For now, everyone will just have to try to get used to education in the new normal.
