Parents, Government can't have it both ways

GOVERNMENT has given parents/guardians the option of vaccinating their child/ward with a World Health Organization (WHO)-approved vaccine against the covid19 virus.

As with the exercise of any choice, there are consequences. On the one hand, an unvaccinated person runs a much higher risk of contracting a virus that has caused the deaths of 4.8 million people globally. There are 239.5 million confirmed cases transcending nationality, age, race, religion, or gender.

On the other hand, 6.5 billion vaccine doses have been administered to offer people the best available measure of protection. These vaccines have been duly subjected to the rigours of stringent scientific procedures by the relevant competent agencies.

The government decided since March 2020 to suspend face-to-face instruction at the nation’s schools to protect children from this relatively unknown deadly virus. Within months, acknowledging that children were being deprived of their educational opportunities, government conceptualised an unprecedented arrangement for virtual teaching.

Though it was imperfect from the inception, teachers readily bought into the concept despite significant apprehension, fear, anxiety, and concern, rising to an occasion that no one had anticipated. It was premised on teachers significantly adjusting/upskilling their pedagogical repertoire, using mostly their own devices and internet, in an unprecedented demonstration of professional commitment.

The necessary haste that characterised introduction of this virtual-learning modality across the education spectrum quickly garnered significant criticism from a cross-section of stakeholders and commentators as this educational vehicle was being assembled, tested, and revised in the midst of uncharted territory.

Many lamented the disadvantages, conceding that this was indeed a poor substitute for traditional schooling.

But a global pandemic required an emergency response and teachers accepted the challenge. Over a year has passed and we have witnessed the negative fallout, with more losses to be counted as time unfolds. The national community yearned for the return to physical schooling.

The vaccines arrived, complete with WHO approval, first for adults and then for children 12-18. Hope transformed into reality for the resumption of physical school.

The authorities declared that this would be done on a phased basis, for vaccinated children only, assuming vaccine availability meant vaccine acceptance, because children’s education was at stake.

However, the reality did not match the expectation and so the number of vaccinated children is way below what may have been anticipated.

Teachers and school officials were duly instructed to prepare to facilitate the resumption of physical schooling for vaccinated forms 4-6 students, in the first instance, and forms 1-3 come January.

Public utterances by both the Prime Minister and Minister of Education indicated that some mechanism would be devised to facilitate unvaccinated students for forms 4-6.

This "magic task" was then thrown into the laps of school officials and teachers, with the Minister of Education subsequently declaring that no official instruction was issued for the cessation of virtual instruction after principals were forced to make hard practical decisions.

What a convenient and calculated devolution of autonomy.

Now the vaccine-hesitant chorus of quasi-stakeholders and commentators is taking offence at the fact that it is simply impossible for teachers to facilitate both modalities within the defined framework. Bullying, intimidation, and threats of legal action characterise demand for teachers to accede to everyone’s whimsical choices.

TTUTA has and will continue to staunchly defend the rights of its members and will repel any attack against them.

The authorities and parents cannot have it both ways.

Policy postulations must be accompanied by appropriate support systems for their enactment/implementation. It is not sufficient to state you have granted school authorities the flexibility to make decisions appropriate for their respective contexts, and then leave them hamstrung to do so with inadequate resources.

It is also not okay for parents to make the choice not to vaccinate and hope that teachers would emerge as the problem-solvers in a situation over which they have no control.

The current situation requires all hands on deck in meaningful consultation to arrive at win-win solutions.

While the various propositions that have been put forward for ways in which physical and virtual schooling may occur are not impossible, they are improbable at this time for several reasons including lack of adequate infrastructure and resources, despite public-relations posturing to the contrary. This is one case in which you cannot have your cake and eat it too