Mixed reactions from parents on physical classes as younger students return to schools

While many parents have expressed their comfort with their children’s return to the face-to-face environment, several are still apprehensive about it.

Lower secondary school students, forms one-three, and primary-school students in standard five preparing for their Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) exams returned to school on Monday, some of them walking through the gates of their secondary schools for the first time in two years.

Shelly-Ann Lovell, speaking to Newsday by phone, said her son would be starting form one on Tuesday.

“He is extremely excited. I don’t think he will sleep tonight,” she said with a laugh.

“He has been waiting eagerly for this day since last year and is going to a school he wanted.”

She said her son’s school had a meeting last week with parents to discuss the protocols. She said, in hearing the guidelines, she became sad for how much of the secondary school experience her son would be missing.

“So much will be taken away from the experience. They can’t mingle. They are not going to really experience making friends and this part of growing up that is crucial to life. It brought tears to my eyes.”

She said she did not have a problem with the face-to-face classes because her children understood how to protect themselves. She has another daughter in form five.

“I think they have handled themselves well so far. Even with people in general if we want to be safe, the onus is on us and not just on ministry."

Not all parents, however, were as comfortable as their children. One parent, who asked to be anonymous, told Newsday before dropping her son off to primary school on Monday morning, she woke up at 5 am in tears.

“(Today was) one of the worst days of my life,” she said. “I have no problem with him coming to school but not right now, with SEA on March 31.

“God forbid there is an outbreak, what time do these children have to prepare? I would not have had a problem if it was a bit earlier but not so close to SEA. I don’t know what them in the ministry are thinking sometimes. Every day is the same scare, and I am not the only parent who broke down and cried this morning.”

Another parent, speaking to Newsday anonymously, said her children would not be out to school until the end of the month as her children had both contracted covid19.

She said her son was supposed to be out since September, but she kept him at home.

“I am uncomfortable and uneasy. I have lupus. It’s not every day I can pick him up, so he has to travel.

“My child has not seen the public road since schools were shut down. They don’t go for fast food, or drive. They are at home. We don’t know how the kids could have gotten covid19 because we don’t go out. We know there are people out there walking around with covid19. Not everybody is responsible enough to stay home.”

She said she does not trust that children would not congregate once they were out.

“Even at home they don’t wear their masks properly.”