The new school year has begun and with it in-person learning has resumed. The Minister of Education and Technical and Vocational Training, the Hon. Glenys Hanna Martin, made her way to several schools as students returned to the classrooms. Minister Hanna Martin hopes that the return to school will address the learning loss experienced during the pandemic. She said, “this is fundamental, its critical and long overdue and this is so important on so many levels. Its a stabilization in the lives of young people. It allows them to begin their resocialization. They can begin to get their intellectual stimulation, the creative involvement. This is like a coming back home to where they should have been, but due to circumstances beyond everyone’s control this is what it was, many years of isolation and separation.”

This is the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic that students will have one hundred percent face to face learning. Vaughn Lockhart, a father who took his daughter to school at Thelma Gibson Primary said, “the kids need to get back to school. Get back into class learning, face to face, because they tend to learn better with teachers in the front of them. Home ain’t nothing happening.” Deon Woodside echoed the sentiments saying, “its good to be back in classrooms cause virtual was lil tense, but back in school will be much better.”

Along with Thelma Gibson Primary School, Minister Hanna Martin visited Doris Johnson Sr. High School and C. H. Reeves Jr. High School.