‘We need to get vaccinated, teachers, all of the personnel who service the school need to get vaccinated, we are doing a disservice to our children in the public schools,” he said on the March 25, 2021, edition of the Honestly Speaking radio show.

Private schools are operational - Skelton-Cline

“Parents you need to be upset, you need to become mad… for why your children are not in school on a full-time basis,” he said.

Skelton-Cline pointed out that private schools in the VI have been operating under the Ministry of Education with responsibility for public education.

“I am unapologetic on this subject of the education of our children, we are failing a generation. Most of our students don’t have the support systems in place,” he said regarding remote education.

Skelton-Cline further tasked the government to make preparations to utilise the summer months for additional schooling, to make up for time lost as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We need to be preparing, that summer won’t be summer per normal, these summer months need to be spent where our children are in school,” he said.

Skelton-Cline’s comment came on the heels of a new study that suggest social distancing in learning institutions can be achieved with less than 6 feet of space when using protocols like masks.

Adjusting to the new normal

According to the man of the cloth, the world has changed so authorities need to be planning for the future and not hoping for things to return to normal.

Skelton-Cline’s comment came on the heels of a new study that suggest social distancing in learning institutions can be achieved with less than 6 feet of space when using protocols like masks.

The study, published in Clinical Infectious Diseases, suggests that 3 feet may be just as effective as 6 feet when it comes to safe physical distancing and controlling the spread of COVID-19 among both primary and secondary students and staff.