Parents still wary of face-to-face classes

On the streets of Hannah Town in western Kingston, children could be seen playing in the streets as their parents watch from a few metres away. A year ago, some of these children may be scurrying home, with immaculately ironed uniforms on hanger and lunch money in pockets as they prepared for the start of the new school week.

Those days of preparing for classes in a physical environment seem long gone. The COVID-19 disease has caused most schools to be closed to face-t0-face learning since last March. However, Desmond McKenzie, the member of parliament for West Kingston, wants for schools in his constituency to be reopened to face-to-face leaning.

Yesterday, as THE STAR journeyed through sections of the constituency, residents expressed mixed feelings to the idea.

"The online school is kind of difficult for me cause I have to be here with my daughter, and I'm not working right now because she online. But with face-to-face school, I would be able to go to work," Shanique Rose said.

Rose, 36, who was employed as a hairdresser, shared that her daughter is a first form student at Dunoon Technical High, which is located in east Kingston. She has a preference for face-to-face learning as she believes online classes leave more opportunities for students to idle.

"True me want my daughter do great in the online, me affi deh here with her fi she do her work, because most of the students, when them parents not here, dem not even go online. Dem nuh do nothing. I want the face-to-face so she can go school and me go work," she said.

Another resident, Ann-Marie Jones, endorsed the call made by McKenzie. She, however, said that face-to-face schooling should only be done for the students in high schools.

Jones, a mother of two children, ages three and five, said younger students would be left vulnerable and have an increased chance of contracting the coronavirus should they return to the classrooms for face-to-face classes.

"Me believe the baby dem should stay home but I don't know how they going do it because you have people like me without tablet and WiFi," she said.

Like Jones, Kadian Morris sat on the sidewalk outside her home in Regent Street, Denham Town, in a pensive mood. She said that her four-year-old son, Aiden Smith, a student of St Anne's Basic School, resumes face-to-face classes today.

"I don't know how they going manage it with the virus. Him deh home from school closed with the online school, and it work alright, but I prefer him face-to-face cause it just work out better that way," Morris said.

Other residents in the Kingston Western constituency welcomed the idea of face-to-face classes, only if there was a shift system implemented and students are tested regularly to ensure the cases are being controlled.

Ashley Grant told THE STAR that a reintroduction of the shift system would be a good idea as it would mean less crowded classrooms, thereby allowing for physical distancing guidelines to be observed.

Grant also believes that the school day should be cut from the current six hours."Give every child a three or four hour of learning. All if the school dem nuh have shift, they can put in shift but I don't agree with face-to-face right now because I don't want them come out and get the corona," she stressed.