Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Tabaquite, Ms Ani­ta Haynes, is call­ing on the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion to in­ter­cede on be­half of stu­dents sud­den­ly fac­ing in-per­son ex­am­i­na­tions and to act be­fore it’s too late and pre­vent un­due bur­dens be­ing placed on all in­volved. The MP al­so states that the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion con­tin­ues to drag its feet in es­tab­lish­ing over­ar­ch­ing covid poli­cies that keep our stu­dents, ed­u­ca­tors and sup­port staff safe. De­tails fol­low in this press re­lease from the MP:  
  

The COVID-19 pan­dem­ic has forced many sec­tors to adapt in or­der to con­tin­ue op­er­a­tions and the ed­u­ca­tion sec­tor is no ex­cep­tion. How­ev­er, de­spite over two years of ap­peals from stake­hold­ers, the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion con­tin­ues to drag its feet in es­tab­lish­ing over­ar­ch­ing poli­cies that keep our stu­dents, ed­u­ca­tors and sup­port staff safe.   

Fol­low­ing the re­cent out­cry from the En­gi­neer­ing Stu­dents’ So­ci­ety, the Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Tabaquite, Ms Ani­ta Haynes, agrees that “pub­lic dis­course has once again right­ly fo­cused on the safe­ty of our ed­u­ca­tion­al in­sti­tu­tions”.   

“There is a re­al con­cern sur­round­ing the safe­ty of our learn­ing spaces, whether for in-per­son class­es or ex­am­i­na­tions. This is more than un­der­stand­able as our na­tion is present­ly fac­ing our most dead­ly COVID-19 wave to date. We must en­sure that safe­ty is the top pri­or­i­ty even as we seek to move for­ward, ” Haynes stat­ed.   

MP Haynes called on the gov­ern­ment to en­gage with stake­hold­ers when grey ar­eas arise and present chal­lenges say­ing, “In this par­tic­u­lar case, I am call­ing on the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion to in­ter­cede on be­half of stu­dents sud­den­ly fac­ing in-per­son ex­am­i­na­tions. Un­like the CSEC and CAPE ex­am­i­na­tions gone be­fore, there is the op­por­tu­ni­ty here to act be­fore it’s too late and pre­vent un­due bur­dens be­ing placed on all in­volved.”   

More­over, Ms. Haynes urged the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion to em­pa­thet­i­cal­ly ad­dress cit­i­zens’ con­cerns:  

“Many stu­dents, par­ents and teach­ers still feel ig­nored and for­sak­en. School ad­min­is­tra­tors are still grap­pling with the tech­no­log­i­cal in­equities that af­fect their abil­i­ty to ex­e­cute their man­date as well as stu­dents’ ac­cess to ed­u­ca­tion. Cit­i­zens – par­tic­u­lar­ly our young peo­ple – are con­cerned for their safe­ty and well-be­ing. We must not lose out on the op­por­tu­ni­ties for in­no­va­tion and progress that are be­fore us now by re­vert­ing too quick­ly to the pre­vi­ous sta­tus quo.”