The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

STUDENTS returned to public school campuses for face-to-face learning yesterday and while there were some reports of a few teachers not showing up for work, officials said the day went well.

There was speculation that the Bahamas Union of Teachers (BUT) would lead educators on a peaceful protest against the resumption of face-to-face learning yesterday morning, however this did not happen.

Director of Education Marcellus Taylor admitted there were a few teachers who didn’t report to work, but he said he heard the day was still going “quite well”.

“We’re still following to hear from the various district superintendents and principals, but so far it seems to have gone okay. We have a number of students who have reported to school today to schools across the Commonwealth of The Bahamas,” he told The Tribune.

“A few teachers who didn’t report to work and it may be a part of some industrial action — illegal industrial action — but we don’t have the numbers yet to be able to speak definitively on that… The greater majority of people seem to have come to work. Students have come to school and we’re confident from what we’ve seen and hearing that the day is going quite well.”

There were some claims of schools being dismissed early due to a lack of teachers.

However, Mr Taylor said the first day back to school is usually not a full day of classes.

“In a lot of our schools, in a lot of our public schools, when they bring children on the first day, they do orientation type activities and because they do orientation type of activities they may not necessarily last the entire day and so they may dismiss students early.

“So, even if that were the case, that isn’t necessarily an unexpected thing. I’m just letting you know. I don’t know that we had to send people home because there were no teachers. That’s not what I’m hearing, but I’ll know better when I see the reports,” he said.

The Tribune tried to contact BUT president Belinda Wilson about the first day of school, however attempts to secure comment from her were unsuccessful up to press time.

Yesterday morning, several parents told The Tribune they were happy for their children to resume in-person classes.

“I didn’t really like the online classes because I feel like my child wasn’t learning as much. So I’m happy that school is open now because that’s where she will be more open with the teacher,” said Sheila Elusma after dropping her daughter off at Yellow Elder Primary School.

Asked if she felt her daughter missed out on some learning due to virtual classes, she said: “Yes, she did, The online classes is basically giving the kids more headaches because going on certain apps and it was more difficult, but I think that if the kids were more in class then they wouldn’t be more confused.”

At Sadie Curtis Primary School, father Pedreito Mejias said his first-grade son was happy to be back in school.

“It certainly is taking a load off our shoulders as far as trying to (cope) with everyday situations. You know school is very vital,” the father explained.

He said his son was excited as he missed going to school in pre-school and seeing his friends.

Mr Mejias added: “He’s the only child, so basically he doesn’t have no one to really play with unless we allow him to play with the neighbours or anybody else like that. So, this is exciting for him. He’s anxious and he wants to make new friends and he wants to learn.

“It gives me a good feeling too as a father and even getting him ready this morning I feel a pang of joy and excitement seeing, hey, we going back to school and get back into the flow of things where he can learn and not waste time because he’s growing pretty fast too.”