Minister of Education Jeffrey Lloyd announced that despite schools being closed, the Ministry of Education has arranged plans to continue the learning process for students, which includes virtual classrooms.
On March 15, Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis announced that all public and private educational institutions will be closed until April 14, 2020.
This announcement came after many schools days were cancelled following Hurricane Dorian.
Despite this, Mr. Lloyd stated that students cannot afford to have a single day of further loss of education time.
“Teachers are to continue to engage students through the media groups that they have already established,” he said.
“Where that has not been done, they are directed to report to school maintaining social distance, secure the register of their students while securing also useful educational materials and to create such groups with the assistance of the school’s management director and the director of education.”
Mr. Lloyd added that the virtual platform for learning, which was launched in September 2019, is currently being upgraded and will be able to accommodate 100,000 students by March 23. About 50 teachers have already been trained for this platform.
Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) is also facilitating a one-on-one learning facility platform which will also be ready on March 23 to provide weekend and personalized sessions to students.
The Ministry of Education has plans for 12th grade students, who are scheduled to graduate in the coming months.
“Beginning on March the 30, two weeks from this past Monday, 12th graders and secondary students even will have live classes in the core subject areas, English, Math and so on,” Mr. Lloyd said.
“They will additionally have optional subjects upon their request. As you have heard, we will conquer this malady only if all hands are on deck, which means that everyone must take on the responsibility of our children’s continuing education.”
The minister also noted that if parents do not have internet access they are free to call the school to have all the materials being posted online printed for their children.
