Schools to be fully reopened on April 25

–curriculum reform to address two years learning loss

Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand announced Monday that schools will be fully reopened on April 25.

On the side lines of the newly launched artificial intelligence leadership programme, ‘Spark’, the education minister said all systems are being put in place to reopen schools to address the two years of learning loss.

“Some skills that were acquired will be lost and forgotten and you might even have the phenomena of drop outs presenting itself in larger numbers than we have ever seen before and we are seeing indications of all of those things so are we ready… We are making sure of course that schools are ready to be reopened fully from April 25th after the Easter holiday.”

To ensure teachers and students are prepared for the new term, the ministry has implemented a staggered system which will see students revisiting studies from their previous grade within a 20- week period, before moving on to the new term’s curriculum.

Additionally, the ministry is working to ensure that every school is equipped with the necessary tools and equipment to be fully functional before the new term commences.

The minister also announced a new programme that will be rolled out nationally to target literacy loss in the four core subjects.

“You’re going to see an assault on illiteracy, you will see an entire national programme rolled out to recover from the literacy loss we would have had and all the gains we would have made that went down the drain in two years. Every single student is going to be diagnosed, we are issuing a diagnostic for Mathematics, English, Social Studies and Science – the four cores. Every student will be diagnosed and each student will be attended to individually to make sure that we recover from the covid loss.”

The education ministry announced the closure of schools back in March 2020, following the onset of the deadly Coronavirus.

Minister Manickchand said the pandemic provided the ministry with the opportunity to review its literacy programme.