NOT all the students at the secondary schools were given approval to attend face-to-face classes, but the leaders of those institutions given the green light were happy to have their children back.

The Government recently granted the permission to accommodate grades 11-13 students in small groups to complete lab and other practical assignments for their external examinations.

Principals at schools in the Corporate Area who spoke with the Jamaica Observer on Monday pointed out that they ensured all the necessary arrangements were made to facilitate their students.

Maulton Campbell, principal at Kingston Technical High, said that with time-bound activities such as school-based assessments (SBA), it was necessary for students to return to face-to-face classes.

“Our students have been coming in to work on practical exercises because we are a technical school and most of our subject offerings require hands on work and practical work in small numbers,” he said, noting he had less than 60 students at school on Monday.

Class arrangements were done a bit different at St George’s College.

“Since we can’t disrupt the timetable, we have been asking teachers and students if they would do labs and practical on Saturdays. We just started to bring in three fifth form groups particularly for exam purposes…,” said the school’s Principal Margaret Campbell.

“That amounts to 90 students today [Monday] as it is going very well. Students are happy to be back and teachers are happy to have them,” she said.

According to Campbell, the sixth form students were expected to be facilitated before the week is completed.

Meanwhile, principal at Campion College, Grace Baston, told the Observer that she had a total of 64 students on Monday and had expected 150 on Tuesday.

“It went very smoothly, we were prepared as we had a lot of cleaning and sanitising and their teachers had arranged their labs for them and once they finish the physical labs, they join their other classes remotely while at school. We had students out for subjects such as art and physics.

“The teachers were happy to have their students so that they could see them do the practical labs and of course, the students are always happy to be physically on campus,” she added.

On Monday, Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) President Winston Smith said he visited three high schools in St Andrew with the regional officer for the south east region, Petal Thompson Williams.

“The three principals I spoke with were very excited and the teachers likewise are happy to have their students back in the physical space. Of course, you know we still have some challenges,” he said.

As it relates to the primary institutions, Smith said he has not got the chance to visit most of them but had received feedback which indicate that “Everything is very good and students are very excited.”

He said it is on his agenda to do other school visits in the north east region and south central region, then the western region.