Education Minister Dr Natalio Wheatley gave that indication while outlining some of the measures that will be taken during the new academic year for both students and teachers.

He said teachers may be faced with having the two categories of students in their classroom.

“There should be at least three live sessions per day for each student to the designated online platform. Other sessions for the online student should be in the form of seatwork using textbooks and uploaded material on Google Classroom,” the minister said.

“For those available for online learning, it is expected that teachers will utilise the curriculum guides, lessons and assessments that will be developed by each grade level,” he added.

Chief education Officer, Connie George.

Printed material for non-online students

On the other hand, Dr Wheatley said there may be students who will not be part of the online learning cohort because they do not have the required electronic devices or sufficient internet connectivity.

For those students who will not be available online, Dr Wheatley said teachers are expected to prepare printed pockets for them to be able to access education.

“Packages should be available at the schools and parents should collect them from the child’s school. The completed work should be returned to the teacher, feedback received, and the parent should collect a new pocket every Friday,” the minister said.

711 registered applicants

In the meantime, Chief Education Officer Connie George said the Ministry of Education had received a total of 711 applications for the 2020/2021 academic year.

“The applications included primary and secondary applicants for both public and private school. Every child registered in any school in this territory should have applied for access to education through the ministry,” George said.

“Of the 711, we have 222 at the kindergarten level … The remaining numbers of the 711; the majority of them were matriculating to Grades 6, [and] from Grade 6 to Grades 7. The remaining numbers were spread across grade levels in the primary and secondary schools,” she stated.

While some private schools will commence teaching this week, classes for students in public schools are scheduled to begin on September 21.