Brown Burke renews calls for COVID 19 testing in schools

about 2 years in Jamaica Observer

With face-to-face school now in its second week, Opposition spokesperson on education and training Dr Angela Brown Burke is again calling on the Government to put plans in place for COVID-19 testing in schools."In many other jurisdictions, an important element in ensuring that our students and teachers are safe is screening and testing. The last time we spoke about testing in schools, the Government said that they had no plans," said Brown Burke during a media briefing staged by the Opposition People's National Party (PNP) on Tuesday.She argued that school nurses are concerned about the frequency with which some parents are sending unwell children to school but noted that the Opposition recognises the difficulty faced by working parents in this regard.According to Brown Burke, there is an urgent need to figure out how to balance the concerns of education and health in Jamaican schools in the era of COVID-19 at a time when the country is nowhere near the aimed for 65 per cent vaccination rate for students."As you can imagine, many parents and teachers are concerned about how the Government is going to ensure that our children are educated while providing a safe environment for everyone."Because we have no vaccines for the majority of our students, testing is going to be important and that, I believe, is non-negotiable," declared Brown Burke.She added: "We need to ensure that everything is put in place to ensure the safety of our children, early detection and that the other protocols can be put in place so we do not reach a situation where the ministry has to close schools."Brown Burke told the media briefing that the current face-to-face modality for schools that was rolled out on January 7 is greatly supported by the Opposition, given the issues of low Internet penetration in some communities and schools, the lack of access to devices by some students and the absence of home-based support in some cases.But she argued that the Government has not been clear about the statistics concerning this."To date, the Government has not been able to give a proper report on exactly where we are and also who are the students and how many of them are without devices. We have also not heard a comprehensive plan about how we can cover the critical percentage of students who need devices," charged Brown Burke.- Mickella Anderson

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