THE first day of virtual classes for the new school term went fairly well.
So says Principal of the Wesley Hall Junior School, Herbert Gittens. He told The Barbados Advocate he received no reports of challenges from staff of that school. Gittens, who is also the General Secretary of the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT), spoke yesterday, the first day of the Hilary term or Term 2.
Last week, Education Minister Santia Bradshaw announced when the new term started, classes would be solely online. She said the Ministry relooked its previous plans for the reopening of schools and came to this decision in light of the significant increase in new COVID-19 cases locally.
Gittens said: “Things seemed to have gone fairly well. Our classes would have generally finished around 2:15 [p.m.] and I did not have any reports of challenges from the staff. What I can say to you is that there are some children who would have had challenges in terms of logging on, but the ITCs [Information Technology Co-ordinators] would have worked with the parents and we would have assisted in correcting any little challenges they have.”
He further stated the challenges which arose throughout the day were mainly technical in nature, but these were addressed. Gittens added: “There are still some persons who are still without devices; that is being worked on. There are some teachers who have devices, they are online, but the devices are not in the best condition, so they are hoping that the Ministry can rectify that in short order. But other than that, things seemed to have gone well.”
Up to the time of the interview, the BUT General Secretary did not receive “any reports from members across the system”, so he was unable to share what was the first day experience or the challenges identified at other schools.