Schools closed for academic year
(CNS): School closure dates have not yet been formally confirmed but Premier Alden McLaughlin said on Tuesday that they would most likely be closed until the new academic year in September. The education minister is scheduled to appear at the COVID-19 briefing update tomorrow, Wednesday, when the myriad questions parents have about school are expected to be addressed.
McLaughlin has previously said that opening the schools would be one of the last things that would happen once the phased lifting of restrictions starts happening here after the virus has been eliminated.
But at Tuesday’s COVID press briefing, the premier said that discussions about when schools will reopen had not taken place but, as is the case in many other countries and given where we are now in the school year, it was his view that schools should stay closed until September.
He revealed that Education Minister Juliana O’Connor-Connolly would be joining the press briefing via Zoom on Wednesday.
Like most news organisations in Cayman, CNS has received many questions about issues relating to the school closures, home schooling and the challenges parents are facing. We have submitted the questions we received to the education department and remain hopeful that they will be addressed by the minister when she appears.
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Category: Education, Local News
Lol. Some parents getting a real taste of what their little angels are really like. Next time teacher calls your home, be respectful.
Day 1 Diary Entry
At home with Jamal and Lakisha. Having a nice day off. Sun is shining, skies are blue.
Great time watching t.v. together as a family. Popcorn tastes heavenly.
Day 2 Diary Entry
Can’t get enough of my little angels. Should have had one more. Yo universe, best kids in the world!!! B_ _ches!
Day 3 Diary Entry
Asked Jamal nicely to stop bothering Lakisha. Ten times in the last minute. Asked Lakisha to be more understanding. Keeps smacking Jamal over the head every time he gets near.
Day 4. Diary Entry
Won’t stop chasing each other round the house. Killa nearly tore a chunk out of them. How many times do I have to tell them to stop lighting the damn dog on fire?
Day 5 Diary Entry
Lazy kids. If I ain’t serving, they ain’t eating. Neighbours already reported me to Child Services twice this month. Can’t ignore them brats like I normally do. Homework not getting done either. Can’t even make a simple bed. Video games and electronics blasting my brains into space.
Day 6 Diary Entry
F’n teachers locked down with the rest of us. Like they need to be. F’n little bastards tearing the damn house apart and terrorizing all living things they can find. Killa looks broken and mangled in the corner. Said a prayer for him. Doubt he’s making it. At least he got in a few bites on their faces and necks. Would have killed most people. Not my little devils.
Day 7 Diary Entry
Satan, take your demons back, lest you fear them! Oh Lord, going to hell for this.
Day 8 Diary Entry
Realized Satan ain’t coming but my F’n demons still here. Breaking curfew, buying a gun. Don’t give a sh1t. These mf’ers had it coming. Jail ain’t got nothing on these bastards! Help me Jesus.
In tonight’s local 6 o’clock news, police arrested a half-naked woman trying to climb the razor wires into Fairbanks. Claimed she’s possessed and haunted by two demons. When told she’s being taken home, the nameless person kicked through the windshield of the police car, grabbed the broken glass and threatened to cut her own throat if not taken to jail immediately.
People who squatted out four children by the time they were 30, are now upset that they have to be home with their children! I’m sorry, but some puzzles and crayons and dare I say it…actually PARENT your child for once. People are so protective over their children, “if someone ever hurt with my child I’d kill them!”, but now there’s a virus that could actually kill a child with asthma and everyone’s like “WHY ARE SCHOOLS CLOSED?!”. You made your bed, now lie in it, the same bed you spread on to conceive the child.
BUY some puzzles
From where?
To all of the Caymanian and Expat Community!!!! Please stop complaining about everything and be grateful for everything.
Reading some of these comments on this platform are very disgusting. If you don’t want to pay your school fees then be prepared to not have your child return to that particular school. There are many more problems in the world and all you can hear echoing in every press conference is clarity on exercise (what do you people don’t get) and of school fees will be decreased. A lot of people complaining can afford to pay these fees but complain or choose to stay in Cayman for the benefits that they are receiving. If you don’t like what our Government is implementing in regards to curfew, non-essential businesses/items and you feel higher than them and are going ahead and breaking the rules. Please note that there are many flights that are leaving the islands please feel free to leave on any one of those.
Food for thought – please put yourself in the shoes of others who are in not in the best of situations. For example, people (single parents, both parents) who have lost their jobs, who are thinking were their next meal is coming for their children and themselves, those who don’t have a roof over their head and no running water and no electricity and etc.
Don’t see why we can’t just delay this next term and extend it into the summer holiday. It’s not like anyone’s going anywhere any time soon. Cancelling next term and expecting parents to go back to work just isn’t possible for most.
The teaching staff, largely expatriates, will be taking holiday off island.
And how will they be traveling?
Swimming and taking a raft.
That’s right everything will be back to normal by then. Holidays? Seriously?
Not if they want to come back to a job they won’t.
How given the travel bans?
Not if they want to come back!
Hopefully they will have left the island as they don’t have jobs.
What do you usually do with your children in the summer? Do it again this year!
Summer is for vacation. Teachers need a break! Teachers are only entitled to 10 sick days a year unlike you who probably took your 4 week vacation in January or February! Leave teachers alone!
Teachers need a break????????
No. Their job is easy. It is the hard working parents that cannot cope with their sheath-leaks that have the issue… I am joking. Damn the teachers need a break…
Well they could be on one hell of a long break.
9:01 pm
Yes teachers are teaching now. I’m sorry if you send your child to a private school that mismanages the resources hence their inability to provide proper distance learning, that’s your problem.
Teachers currently teaching need their summer break.
They need an 8 week break, after 2 other 2 week breaks?
How long a break are our nurses going to get?
Get some perspective people! Everyone needs a break but people expecting two months off are a little entitled in the circumstances.
The private schools (and that includes the myriad of pre schools or montessoris or book clubs masquarading as schools) must be advised to reimburse fees to the families of students.
They are not carrying on business as usual and certainly not providing anything near the full product. Which is fine. that’s the same as many businesses. But other businesses are either waiving costs, or reducing their staff salaries, etc. What are the schools doing? If i’m at home with my 2 children, why am i paying full whack for tuition when my kids are maybe getting 3/4/5 hours per day, certainly no sports/PE training; no specialized classes, etc.
the schools must play ball too and help out here, probably 1/3rd to 50% of all fees paid in advance from shut down must be returned. why am i paying to keep teachers fully paid when my workplace is cutting salaries to acknowledge reduced performance?
Agreed!!!!!
Civil servants can pay the full fees.
Great. Then when, if, they reopen they are short staffed.
They’ll come back.
Some private school teachers will not be getting a salary so It’s incorrect of you to say that you’re paying tuition for teachers to get paid. Please speak to your child’s school regarding a refund.
Agreed. Mine go to CIS (through lack of other options, not choice) and the online teaching has been haphazard/borderline non-existent. The school has been shut since the dump fire but no mention of any of the (exorbitant) fees being refunded.
One really has to question why CIS does not have virtual learning with the huge fees they charge. Creativity and innovation in education does no seem to be a strong point at Caymanian private schools.
Fake news.
Good luck! That cheque was spent months ago.
Why are schools the last to open? What is the justification there? Around the world we are seeing schools re-open first as children and their young adult parents are generally very unlikely to get serious problems from the virus. Or this is just Alden got no school kids? Maybe he just doesn’t care about education?
Yes! Why are we doing this last.
Some countries the government are ordering private schools to open so the parents of essential workers can work and public schools are open.
It’s not just about pedants working but these kids need to learn and social interaction.
You have taken their beach, pools, friends, playgrounds locked them in a house and in some case split them from parents. If all goes well and we only get a few more cases they should be back to school 1st of May
My child is not going to any school while a risk of transmission remains. If I am understanding the Premier correctly, the same applies to your child.
Sure, There is a whole world of schools out there.
Fine don’t send them. That’s your choice but you’re not entitled to tell me my kids can’t go to school.
I hate to break it to you but this isn’t going away for years. You’re probably going to catch it sooner or later. Did you imagine the borders are going to be shut until there is an effective vaccine?
Yes. That is exactly what is going to happen.
Then you’re looking at 18 months minimum. That’s if one even exists. Enjoy.
They’re not entitled to, but the Premier is and he did. Sorry you had kids and now you have to spend time with them.
Then pull them out of school and let the rest of us get on with it then.
Then when there is an outbreak or transmissions through the schools that spreads to homes like wildfires, how will that make you feel? Guessing just fine since apparently your only holiday this year is going to be the one you get sending your kids for others to look after them. Be a parent, give a sh!t!! The schools ware doing their best under the circumstances. If you feel one is better than another, sign up for that since there are all these comments about the hundreds of spaces that will open up soon. We could be so lucky as it would hopefully be as a result of selfish accidental and inconvenienced parents leaving to all these amazing countries handling it so much better.
Please go, and pick up a six pack of condoms at the airport so you don’t accidentally produce any more inconveniences into your life….
.
Sanctimonious twerp. I want my kids to go to school because, shocker, it turns out teachers are better than non teachers at teaching. Quite happy to spend the holidays with my kids. Sheesh some people.
You have expressed my thoughts precisely! WELL DONE!!
Maybe they do ‘give a sh1t’. Maybe they give a sh1t about their kids education.
Children have been diagnosed, many other countries have cancelled schools for the rest of the year. Seems like plain old common sense to me.
Yes schools in countries that have lots of community spread BUT the countries we are apparently copying that have almost eradicated it have schools now opening OR been open the whole time.
So let’s throw them all in the pool and see if we can catch up?? You do understand community spread, right, or was this one of the pre-k students grabbing daddy’s keyboard….
Many other schools in other countries have implemented virtual education for higher grades. Why is that not possible here in the private schools?
Why wouldn’t you want to spend as much time with your child? Question why did you want kids in the first place?
Ugh, you must not have children.
Or you should have invested the price of your martini in a six pack of condoms… well, one of your martinis at least…
You dumb dumb. Implying the original poster knows nothing about the complications of keeping children LOCKED IN HOMES for months is enough to send shivers down the greatest of parents spine. Mine love to swim and now that’s gone. Give me a break.
Or…maybe…possibly…potentially…because we don’t know much about this virus AND…. because children are known vectors of disease AND…. the teachers are often older AND… students have parents and grandparents that are older than them and they could potentially catch this virus…AND…zzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Dumbest comment I’ve read all day
If the schools all close until next school year starts, how will they determine if the kids get to move up to the next grade level? Will they consider going to school in the summer months, if covid-19 is under control by then?
11:28am
They will decide the way they decided in the past. There will be no summer school unless we stop providing distance learning now. Maybe you can make attempt to get your child on grade level by September, that will be helpful.
Sincerely,
All teachers in Cayman
Our Leader has decreed schools closed until September, no need for discussion.
and the end of your rights!
Individual rights vs the rights of the group. Always a sticky conversation.
Damn your rights now. The concern now is the greater good of Caymanian society. So snowflake, a few of your rights are going to be trampled on till we get over this health emergency. Just suck it up.
Your child has a right to learn, not a right to attend school.
Yes, it is the dictate.
Doesn’t school open in August?
You should go, sounds like you need to relearn.
not in Cayman
Yes they do look it up
Public Schools open in late August in Cayman every single year.
It does start in late August. You are correct.
They open in late August.
it really depends on where the end of August/start of September falls in the week – I have known school to start on 27 August and also to start on 2 September … and my kids were at school here since KG (my oldest is in Year 13 this year).
https://publicholidays.la/cayman-islands/school-holidays/
All understood and good – but can we please reopen them for what would have been the summer holidays if there is by then no risk of local transmission?
The reasons are varied but:
Parents will need to be free of kids to maximize their potential productivity as we try to generate local commercial activity.
Children have missed out on a lot of education, and there is a lot of catching up to do.
The buildings are there. Let’s use them!
Ok, seriously – what is the basis for the downvotes? People want feral youth? Unemployed parents don’t want every reasonable opportunity to be productive, without being saddled with childcare costs? People don’t want our youth to be as educated as possible?
13 Government teachers looking forward to 5 months paid vacation!
Doubt it, but if true they should be fired immediately. Hardly the example of character we should be setting for our children. We are in this together and all making sacrifices.
I don’t know how it works in Cayman, but most teachers do not get a “ paid summer vacation “. You get paid for only the days you work, in my case 183 days ( September- June) and currently we are running online classes, full day during the pandemic.
Not sure why I got the thumbs down. Do you want to pay me for a summer vacation?
The rest of the private sector (that pay your fees and hence your salary) are working all hours, including their weekends and holidays, to try to keep some money flowing. We would simply ask that you play your part and of course would be prepared to fairly remunerate you for it.
If however you turn around and demand your 2 month break while the rest of society disintegrates around you, you won’t have much sympathy.
12:00 pm,what’s with you and teacher salary? Why don’t you go look for lawyers and accountants and harass them the same way you are doing teachers?
in·san·i·ty
I assume the schools have been informed and will be arranging for a pro-rated reimbursement for tuition and after school care that has been already paid.
Yes, they will defiantly have to give back the portion of the tuition. The online substitution courses they are providing will not justify keeping the over payments.
lol
Where is the government supplements for all the schools were parents are still having to pay fees but not getting the service from them? As well as a reduction in energy consumed should be passed on to all the parents but it’s not.
No plan CIG
I clearly told my daycare that I will not be paying for a service Im not getting, it’s not my fault that they dont have backup funds for situations of this matter.
cheers alden…another helpful update….zzzzzzzzzzz.
No way I’m paying for the substandard interaction with our FOR PROFIT pre- school. If my kid was sitting A Levels that would be one thing…but a nursery or early age school shouldn’t expect us to keep paying! See you next year.
You won’t see the teacher (and probably not your shitty choice of “school”) as they will be laid off and closed as a result.
Right. They don’t have work. They can go home and come back when business is up and running like everyone else. And if they don’t return, trust me, there are many people who will be applying for jobs whenever we get out of this mess.
Oh great yeah lets fire the teachers, they can ‘go home’, and we can just hire new teachers out of the pool of unemployed. Genius. No I can’t see any issue with that at all.
Yeah you won’t be allowed back
Are all the private schools closed too?
Creative teachers in the private schools can do remote learning. Let’s do it because we are looking at maybe well into next year with this coronavirus. Be creative Minister of Education. Earn your big salary. Show John John that you can do it.
Recognize in public schools children might not be able to afford internet and computers.
But we need to think outside the box. We cannot let education of our Caymanian youth die.
Surely the private schools can do some time of remote schooling in the higher grades.
Grades 10 thru 12 ?
When will happen to teacher who work at pre school.. will thier get pay
Gosh. I hope that you are not one of those ‘teachers’ with that spelling & grammar. Fine if you look after the babies at a nursery & your main qualification is love, followed by patience.
No worky, no $, get it?
Wow
I would like to raise the concern (maybe rare) of having 2 parents that are both essential workers and needed to do a hands on job, and how are they expected to manage with kid(s) in tow, especially if they are expats and have no family here on island. Many thanks in advance!
Hopefully some form of school/daycare/camp set ups will arise as soon as the shelter in place restrictions can be lifted and the risk of transmission no longer exists.
The underground schools are already operating.
Cool. Are they in Zion?
If they are please report them! Report all rule breakers. Every person that doesn’t stick with the social distancing and mingles with other groups means we will be locked fown forever. Alden wants it eliminated before he allows us out of curfew & back to work.
Seriously people. If you see someone not abiding call 911.
If you do that then you may as well open schools.
Some of the most successful places that have almost exterminated the virus did not even close the schools.
Look at some of the States in Australia!