CORRECTION: Mabaruma school was not shut down

The Mabaruma Primary School in Region One was not shut down on Wednesday because teachers tested positive for COVID-19, an official has confirmed.

The News Room earlier reported that the school was closed for sessions on Wednesday but the school was in fact open. Only one teacher is reported to have tested positive. The News Room was misled by a teacher in the Region and apologises for carrying the original story which we recognised created unease both in the region and nationally.

“There was one teacher who came from Georgetown, she came in late on Monday, she was having flu-like symptoms and she was in the company of like two or so teachers and the [head teacher] advised since they were having flu-like symptoms that they take a COVID test.

“They went to the hospital, they took the test one came back positive, the others who went with her were negative,” Marti De Souza, Deputy Chief Education Officer for Amerindian and Hinterland Education Development told the News Room.

He related that all of the staff at the school were also tested for the virus. Their results are negative.

Since the reopening of schools for full physical learning after almost two years, parents have flooded social media with a plethora of complaints.

Except for students in Form One or Grade Seven, schools reopened on January 03, 2021 to all children for the Easter academic term.

According to a schedule released by the Ministry of Education, physical classes for the primary school children in Grades One to Five will rotate while all Grade Six children ae required to attend classes every day.

It was noted that if all children can be accommodated in a school with the appropriate social distancing guidelines, then they can attend classes every day.

Further, all secondary school students are required to attend classes every day. There will be no rotation and no online classes offered.

Guyana has reported significant learning loss and school dropouts with the closure of schools to curb the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The Education Ministry has since introduced a consolidated curriculum to help curb learning loss. This means that topics that would be repeated in other subjects are now merged as one.