SCHOOLS with established shift systems have an additional two weeks to streamline their operations to facilitate the full resumption of face-to-face classes. This was disclosed by acting chief education officer in the Ministry of Education and Youth Dr Kasan Troupe.

She said the timeline will enable the schools to “work through their challenges [and] communicate with [parents], so [they] can know fully when they will be going back to their normal operations.”

She was speaking during the ministry’s virtual town hall meeting on the full resumption of face-to-face classes, on Friday.

Dr Troupe explained that schools on the shift system will have to facilitate a “number of changes, given their situation”, noting that “they are beyond their capacities [and] there is a classroom shortage issue, [among other things]”.

“So they need a little bit more time to work through [that and] we’re asking [parents] to just be patient with them,” she implored.

Dr Troupe emphasised that the ministry “really [wants] to have all our students back in the whole-day [school] environment, especially in light of the learning losses that we have suffered over the period of the pandemic”.