-          Trevor Trey Pasman

           Thursday 7th May 2020

 

VUNAPOPE – Catholic Agency Schools in East New Britain Province on Monday resumed classes with caution amid the COVID-19 SOE.

In a report issued on 1stMay 2020, the Catholic Archdiocese of Rabaul’s Assistant Education Secretary Mr Pais Tude noted key points from a series of emergency meets with the province’s Education personnel and the Catholic Education Secretary’s Office on the 27th& 28thof April that were called to draw up guidelines for the resumption of classes for schools in East New Britain.

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Upper grades in Secondary, National High, High schools and Primary are to resume full time classes while the rest of the grades are to undertake home based studies; picking up work at school and dropping off finished work in a scheduled manner that restricts the number of students at a school campus at any one time to a manageable number.

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Mr Tude visited Catholic Agency schools in the Kokopo and Rabaul Deaneries to personally validate the implementation of these guidelines as well as social distancing and hygiene requirements. He noted that since lower grade students will not be in school full time, teachers and students have more space to enforce social distancing in the classroom.

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Mr Tude felt confident that Catholic agency schools will fully implement personal hygiene requirements, particularly washing of hands as most of them have big water tanks.

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He also noted the challenges to be met by home studying students and called upon parents whose children will be studying from home to set up work stations for them to work away from distractions and if possible, to have a family member or relative to supervise and coordinate studies for them.

All teachers have also been urged to perform their roles diligently, abiding to this temporary schedule amid the COVID-19 SOE lockdown.

In conclusion Mr Tude thanked the Teachers and staff of schools throughout East New Britain for their efforts in ensuring that school resumes smoothly in an environment that is safe for students and teaches and encouraged them to perform their duties to the best of their abilities given these unprecedented circumstances.