President of the National Council of Parent-Teacher Associations, Shone Gibbs.
THE meeting convened by the Ministry of Education, Technological and Vocational Training with representatives from Parent-Teacher Associations across the island has been described as cordial.
That’s the description coming from President of the National Council of Parent-Teacher Associations (NCPTA), Shone Gibbs, who attended both sessions, which were held at the Garfield Sobers Gymnasium on Wednesday. Officials on hand to respond to questions from parents included Education Minister, Santia Bradshaw; Minister of Elder Affairs and People Empowerment, Cynthia Forde; Chief Education Officer (Ag.), Joy Adamson; and Head of the COVID-19 Monitoring Unit, Ronald Chapman.
Gibbs said the parents welcomed the opportunity to interact with the Minister and her panel and gave some insight into the closed-door meeting.
“Both the morning and evening groups raised concerns about not yet hearing from schools formally about their reopening; others were concerned about the number of days of face-to-face instruction being scheduled by some schools, stating that two were too few; the wearing of masks; issues with technology; issues with bosses not willing to allow working from home or time off to collect children or time off on specific days when children will be home doing online schooling; matters relating to finding additional spaces to accommodate classes; and adjustments for Class 4, CSEC and CAPE students.”
He added that there were even calls for all students to be back in school, face to face, since there is no community spread in Barbados. “Most of their queries were adequately addressed by the panel.”
Gibbs explained that though many schools were not represented, NCPTA is aware that many PTAs are presently in transition. “We are in the process of updating our data on schools with and without functioning PTAs, so they can be assisted in whatever areas they require in order to become vitally functional.”
The Education Minister, while speaking to the media after the first session, expressed concern that only 15 of the 104 schools were represented at the meeting.
The NCPTA president said it was evident from the discussions that there is a need to continue building bridges between home and school, so solutions can be found to help navigate successfully through the new COVID-19 environment. “We were pleased to have assisted the Ministry of Education in making Wednesday’s meetings a reality and look forward to working together towards the goal of having vitally functioning PTA bodies in all our schools,” Gibbs said.