PM Skerrit Appreciates New Guidelines and Protocols for School Reopening

PM Roosevelt Skerrit has expressed gratitude to teachers and school administrators for their commitment to reopening schools across the country in September. He particularly appreciated teachers as well as the Ministry of Education for enabling students of higher institutions to resume again, and thanked everyone for the protocols under which tertiary institutions will reopen again in Dominica.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education has released the guidelines and regulations for school reopening, and these protocols will guide the performance of teachers, student activities, health practices, as well as isolation requirements among other things. Ministry officials said the school reopening guidelines were created with collaboration with relevant agencies such as UNICEF, UNESCO, CARICOM, CDB, WHO, CARPHA, Ministry of Health, and even parents across the country.

Furthermore, Chief Education Officer Dr. Jeffery Blaize has outlined the preparations being made by the education and health ministries to make schools safer for students on resumption. He said his ministry will be embarking on a cleaning and fumigation exercise in schools before students return in September. He added that cleaning supplies will also be distributed to schools so that cleaners can get the job done in record time.

We’ll have a lot of delivery supplies delivered to us because we’re going to be engaging all our cleaners. So that’s the very first, we’re going to do all our cleaning and sanitization of the schools. We have retrofitted a number of the water troughs at our schools to ensure that the hand washing practices are going to continue and we’re going to redouble on that.

Jeffery Blaize: Chief Education Officer

He noted that automated dispensers and bottled hand-sanitizers will also be given out to schools for use in classrooms and school compounds to promote hygiene. He urged students to obey and follow all recommended health protocols when they resume, and encouraged teachers to ensure that students comply so that the health of the entire academic community can be safeguarded against the COVID-19 pandemic.

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