Parents continue to raise serious concerns regarding the safety of their children in schools

As parents continue to raise concerns regarding the safety of their children in schools, Minister for Education Premila Kumar had said on Tuesday that they are always monitoring the situation.

Kumar says the Education Ministry is not a health expert and they rely on the Ministry of Health, UNICEF, and the World Health Organisation to guide them on safety measures.

She says it is not that the Ministry of Education has made a decision, and knowing very well they are not health experts, they have had a series of meetings on a daily basis to exchange information and to monitor the situation.

A number of parents have contacted us and raised concerns about the safety and security of their children as it has also been confirmed by the Ministry of Health that they have received reports of teachers and students testing positive for COVID-19 in schools.

We have asked the Ministry of Education how many teachers and students have tested positive for COVID-19 so far and how many positive cases and primary contacts have been isolated.

Fijivillage has asked how the Ministry is implementing COVID safe measures when some classrooms in the country have more than 50 students.

We have also asked what actions can the heads of schools take against those students who are not following all the protocols as there have been reports of students not wearing masks despite being told by the teachers.

Meanwhile, Kumar had said on Tuesday that they will consider other measures if things get out of hand.

She says this includes splitting the class into two and then allowing one set of students to come on one day and another set on another day however that is not required at the moment.

The Minister adds this whole week was about raising COVID-19 awareness not only in schools, but to prepare students to be part of the new normal generally.

Concerns are also being raised that children under the age of 12 years will return to school from Monday and none of them have been vaccinated and chances of further transmission is high.

There is also a risk that it will be even harder for teachers to ensure these children follow all the protocols in place.

We have sent further questions to the Ministry of Education to clarify the concerns raised by many parents.

They are yet to respond.