EBENEZER--The School Board for Secondary Education SVOBE has moved to online classes effective today, Monday, January 10, given the rise in the positive coronavirus COVID-19 cases on its campuses.
“Due to the exponential rise in the COVID cases within our schools, Milton Peters College (MPC) and Sundial School, management unfortunately had to make the decision to revert to online classes effective Monday, January 10, for at least a period of two weeks, in order to mitigate the spread of very contagious Omicron variant,” SVOBE stated in a press release on Sunday. “After these two weeks we hope that the numbers within our schools will be drastically less.”
Those students who do not have Internet accessibility or connectivity will have to go to their respective school on Wednesday, January 12, to collect materials – such as study plans, assignments and worksheets – teachers have prepared for them. They will travel to school with the morning busses for 7:30am and can leave school at 10:00am with busses, which have been requested to pick them up.
“This was not an easy decision to make. We know that face-to-face education is most effective for our students, however, the time has come once again, during this pandemic, to try to balance the safety of all students and personnel and education,” said the release.
“I urge parents to continue to be vigilant by monitoring your child for any symptoms and having them tested. I also urge parents to communicate with the school about their child’s medical well-being.
“During these two weeks, kindly continue to inform us as soon as possible if your child is in quarantine or in isolation. This will allow us to make a sound decision about bringing our students back to school after two weeks.
“Please do not hesitate to contact your child’s coordinator of department head if you have any questions,” the SVOBE said in the release.
The SVOBE schools are not the only schools that have taken a similar route. Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport (ECYS) Rodolphe Samuel confirmed in last week’s Council of Ministers press briefing that the Charlotte Brookson Academy and the St. Maarten Academy Schools chose not to resume classes on January 3, although it has not been confirmed if these schools have switched to online instruction as well.
