One of the most challenging periods, says BUT head

Although the physical conditions of some schools warrant the relocation of teachers and students, it is challenging to do so at this time.

President of the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) Pedro Shepherd, speaking Friday night at the President’s Reception at the “Merry Hill”, Welches, St Michael headquarters, said this COVID-19 period was proving to be one of the most challenging in education thus far with no end of it in sight.

“So, I trust that those of us in the system would continue to navigate what is termed as uncharted waters for quite some time. Only today, I would have had a meeting with the Ministry of Education looking at challenges facing the system at present. In addition to COVID, we had some weather recently that caused leaking in as many as probably 40 or so schools across the country with some of them being in a state, really, where students and teachers ought not to be present.

“But, of course, with COVID-19 and health protocols, the need for social distancing, it is extremely difficult now to relocate schools and students, so it is adding pressure on us and on the Ministry at this point in time,” he said. (GBM)

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