By: Spokesman Newsroom
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (Thursday 6th January 2022) — Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education William Vincent Hodge is encouraging students, teachers and others within the school system who have not yet taken the COVID-19 vaccine to do so in order to improve school safety during the pandemic.
“The Omicron variant of the COVID virus is travelling rapidly, it is highly contagious and we are learning from other countries that many young people seem to be the ones catching this variant very quickly. As a result young people and children are being hospitalized because of the virus,” he highlighted while speaking on a ‘Working For You’ episode on Wednesday 5th January 2022.
He noted that the Basseterre High School and Washington Archibald High School must continue on the shift system due to square footage constraints and high enrolment. “In order to improve school safety during the pandemic, we urge all of our parents and teachers, students, support staff, adults who are working in our schools to get vaccinated. Now, our children at least from 12 years up to 17 who are in school and even out of school, they can take the vaccine for themselves. We would really love to appeal to our young people to come out and get vaccinated. We ask parents to support this process. With higher vaccination rates, the Basseterre High School and the Washington Archibald High School would be able to bring back all their students,” he said.
Term two of the current academic year 2021-2022 is slated to begin Monday January 10th to Thursday 1st April 2022. Hodge confirmed all public primary and secondary schools will reopen on a full-time basis except Basseterre High School and Washington Archibald High School, which remain on a shift system. The Ministry of Education has also confirmed the construction of a number of hand-washing stations in schools across St. Kitts and Nevis as part of a project funded by UNICEF.