The Tribune

By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Tribune Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

PARENTS are at fault for the deficits in learning that have arisen from some students not attending classes virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic, Anglican Bishop Laish Boyd said yesterday.

He said parents “have to own this” because it was the result of “irresponsibility”.

“We recognise that education has been impacted severely by COVID-19,” he said during the 118th session of the Anglican Synod at Christ Church Cathedral last night. “Virtual learning has been difficult for teachers, students and parents, for some more than others.

“We have to be sensitive to the struggles that all of these groups have had, and I commend teachers, students and parents for their best efforts. We have to do all that we can to help and to encourage them, and to provide equipment for those who do not have the technology to learn and to study.

“We are very concerned about the numbers of children in The Bahamas who have not signed in to the virtual portals and therefore have missed out on a lot of their own education. Some of these children have equipment issues and some are victims of poverty, but most are not in this category.

“The government nor the Ministry of Education is at fault. It is the home and the parents who have to own this. It is simply irresponsibility. Sad but true. My earnest prayer is that children and parents would see the importance of prioritising education and seek to make up for the time and learning opportunity lost.

“We wish the Ministry of Education and private institutions well as we all venture deeper in hybrid and, ultimately, full face-to-face learning.”

In October, Education Minister Glenys Hanna Martin said COVID-19 has had a “cataclysmic” impact on education as she pledged to ensure the country does not produce “a lost generation of Bahamian youth”.

Earlier this month, she announced all schools will reopen for in-person instruction in the second week of January with just a few exceptions.

The learning model is expected to be hybrid instruction at first.

The bishop went on to urge people to reduce levels of violence in the community, while pinpointing the death of a child in recent days.

He said there were many other children in similar circumstances.

“…Girls, boys, women and men who are victims of physical, mental and emotional violence.

“We in the church must not turn a blind eye and we must work to make our homes, schools, workplaces and communities places of peace and safety. We join the government in seeking to nurture and to create better family life.

“Strong families create strong communities and societies and countries. I encourage those responsible for policy formation and the allocation of necessary resources to reignite efforts to commence a Family Court. This will take the strain off of the general court system and form a more direct reach into a special and critical area of need.”

Bishop Boyd also noted the situation in Haiti. He said Bahamians and those in Turks and Caicos must be tolerant to all Haitian migrants.

“We continue to pray for peace and stability: only God can bring that. The Bible urges us to pray without ceasing. And we in The Bahamas and The Turks and Caicos Islands must continue to be tolerant and humane to Haitian and to all migrants, even when they break the law.

“Mind you – do not get me wrong – the law must be respected and maintained and no one should be allowed to break laws with impunity. However, most of us have no idea of the conditions in Haiti and in other countries, and the suffering and hopelessness that causes tens of thousands of people to risk their lives and the lives of their children to find a better life.

“We have no idea! So let us seek to have the mind of Christ and the sacred heart of Jesus in these matters.”