Remote learning extended to April 1

1. good news

2. Correct Decision.
   Clarity for teachers, parents & pupils.

   It’s now up to every Antiguan, vaccinated or not, to mask, distance & sanitize meticulously all the time to get control of the virus and give our schools a real opportunity to open for summer term.

3. LETTER TO DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION, CLARE BROWNE
   Dear Mr Browne
   Do you have any idea, any at all, of how difficult it is for parents and students on the online learning plan? Do you know that there are students who do not have any laptops, computers, or worst, parents who could assist them? Do you know that the children are so frustrated some of them have stopped trying to attend the sessions and are looking at this time as a vacation? Even fourth and fifth formers? Have you spoken to your teachers to hear about the hard time they are having to get the students to attend the sessions and to stay engaged in what is being taught?
   Let us look at the parents. They’re supposed to be supervising the sessions. To a great degree, most of them are at work trying to keep food on the table. When they leave home, their children take this to mean it is free time. They make up all kinds of excuses not to attend the classes. There is this one family. One parent is a teacher and the other has a little teaching experience but must go out to find work (he was down sized). They have three school aged children – two in secondary school and one in primary. The father owns a laptop, the mother a tablet. All three children have their lessons at the same time. The mother has her classes with her school. Can you imagine the chaos? The father must stay home to help. He also has to use his cell phone as one of the lesson hubs. He cannot respond to jobs he could get because he has to stay home to help his children.
   Mr Browne, where are the ebooks, the laptops that these children are supposed to have to help them with their education? Where is the assistance to teachers and parents with connectivity from APUA? What is the Ministry of Education doing to alleviate this potential learning disaster that we see on the horizon.
   Thank God all my children are passed that stage, otherwise you would have been hearing from me in a bigger way than this letter. The parents, the Teachers’ Association and the students need to start fighting for themselves. If they don’t do that now, they are going to regret it later.
   Mr Browne, shame on you. You are not taking on the responsibility that was entrusted to you. You are hiding under ministry policies. Extending the online time puts even more pressure on everybody. Nobody sees you going the extra mile to alleviate this situation, even with the pandemic. You are a failure, yet another one waiting for his pension to come without exerting yourself.
   I have news for you. These same children will be the ones to give you your pension when that time comes. They will remember your stewardship, or lack thereof. A word to the wise is sufficient.

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