School Christmas break extended two weeks
(CNS): Parents with children in government schools will have them home for the holidays for much longer than usual. Government confirmed to CNS that there are plans to extend the Christmas school holiday by two weeks. However, officials would not say whether or not this additional holiday is to allow teachers from overseas extra time to travel home and then undergo the necessary quarantine on return.
“The Ministry of Education and Department of Education Services (DES) confirm that they are presently in consultation with government schools to extend the Christmas break by two weeks,” officials said in an email to CNS Wednesday. “As a consequence, there will be changes to some key dates during the 2020-2021 academic year. The ministry will update the public once the new dates are confirmed.”
No other details have been revealed yet, such as whether or not there will be online learning, but the ministry said it would be outlining the details in a forthcoming release.
CNS understands from parents who learned of the probable extension via social media groups that their children’s schools will be closed for the Christmas vacation until as late as 18 January after the term breaks up on 21 December.
Category: Education, Local News
My teacher friends did piss all during lockdown. They said they completed the bare minimum to keep senior staff and parents off their case. They enjoyed a paid extended holiday. Good for them.
Dumbing down the next generation of voters right before our very eyes. Keep it classy Cayman.
Well that’s the Post Offices closed again!
Why put Caymanian kids in schools at all? Honest question. Teaching them and giving them an education is not the reason is it. Why not pay half as much and just babysit them? Parents get what they want and so does Government. If Caymanian parents want to make sure their kids get an education they send them to and pay for a private school anyway.
Actually pretty smart how they shift blame to the teachers(Who have no power to close down the schools). The fact that they are leaving Cayman for Christmas and hopefully coming back to only a 14 day Quarantine before being allowed back to work is more likely a big surprise to them.
This goes to the core of why we are disadvantaged. Teachers are great but don’t let my kid suffer because you want to go home. Lets see how many teachers and where they are going home?
My take, go home and stay there.
No disrespect, but imagine if the private sector did this?
I will remember this action come May next year. STUPID.
Juju just give them a very, very big in salary. She to to help to have better work ethic, what b… s…, If one got good work ethic they got it, if they don’t have it all the money in the world would not change it that’s human nature . Any sensible person knows that. Same thing if a person is humble all the.money in the world would not make them proud
Making sure Caymanian kids are ready to fail as “others” prosper.
Classic CIG. Are there even any flights available for the teachers to book to go visit family???? And what about return flights? Making this announcement at the beginning of December is hilarious – zero time to actually plan.
Because too much education is not a good thing for CIG. but yes, blame it on the teachers. All the past students will believe you.
This is beyond ridiculous if you ask me. Our kids are already behind in school due to this Covid Pandemic. Why would you keep them out of school unnecessarily? The ministry was talking a few months back about extended the school hours either to start early or finish later in order for the kids to catch up but none of that has happened. Instead some grades are finishing earlier. What happened to putting our kids first?
I’m sorry but as a parent I do not agree at all. Look at the long term damage that this may cause our child/children. Education should be the most important thing now more than ever.
They think we will forget by May, wont happen
Looks like the beginning of an election year.
What a ridiculous decision. Not only do our kids needs more time at school to catch up on this horrendous year they have had. The economy also needs to catch up
As a small business owner i will no doubt have requests for time off for my staff to look after their kids
Not only will they not want to use their annual leave. I can see sickness increasing and subsequently my business will suffer.
I have already had to endure 3 months of non productiveness and now this.
These politicians need to get in the real world and stop making decisions so they can get extra brownie point in the upcoming election
Just a plain stupid decision
I just feel some parents just DON’T want to be around their children – that is why for school to be open is so important to them.
If some parents were more involved in teaching their children when they are home – they would be more advanced in school.
Some parents have jobs and can’t stay home and play with their kids all day…
Yes, I’ve heard some horror stories on how those kids behave a JG. I think some of those parents think the teachers are responsible for raising their children.
Teachers are paid to teach the children. I did my best with my son during lock down. He is just starting to adjust to being back in school. If the children take a month off before exams, they’ll get behind. They better not start any crap about children go to school for longer hours again.
Come on big law firms and audit firms. Expats need to see their family before the suicide rate increases. You need to give your staff 1 month vacation at Christmas. (Sic). But at the very least, you need to give your staff 1 month of vacation at Christmas because who it going to stay home with the kids?
Sing it with me…”Have yourselves a zoomie little Christmas…”
CIG – why is it that almost every plan you make seems to be half baked and poorly thought out? Does every decision needed to be a rush job? I am not for or against the idea, but you need to be slightly more comprehensive in your thought process. Three weeks before the Christmas break you decide to start school back in mid Jan? Parents now need to scramble around and get literally robbed by these “camps” that charge $1,000 for half days? Is there enough for thousands of kids? What about the parents who can’t afford that and are barely making ends meet? Children will be left home alone and may end up getting into mischief or other things. OR! They’ll go to NAU for financial support for these camps, which still costs the Public Purse. All I am saying CIG, think more than 1 step ahead, its embarrassing.
This is insane. tell me MLAs, or what ever the f*** you think you should be called these days. Who is going to look after my kids when I’m at work. This is complete foolishness.
If a large amount of people take advantage of thus extended break and choose to travel where is it planned that they quarantine at when they return also if they have to quarantine at a hotel who pays for this the traveler or the government?
Having announcements to a teacher body with full disclosure of term dates and extensions, well, that would be a desirable outcome to our pre-discussions. We cannot think through her speech, in a moment of ministerial bravado, while drinking mocktails at a relaxing teacher appreciation function!
My thoughts are what about those families that have lost jobs or reduced income? Child care or camps are not cheap and not everyone has a support system to help with child care. Not all employers are child/family friendly to allow time off! I hope that CI Govt will partner with a camp to provide reasonable camp prices for 2 weeks! I’m now in a position to decide what I will do, as I was taking vacation during the week of Christmas!
Brackers be a fool some times. But please don’t make a career out of it. Remember this statement come May next year.
Wow.
Sooooo…. Government couldn’t find substitute teachers for the 2 weeks while the main teachers quarantine?
And what is the long term plan for if a teacher returns Covid positive?
Has the Government even surveyed to confirm how many teachers even want to leave Cayman in the current global crisis?
Not sure what Gov is trying to achieve here but everybody had to make sacrifices this year and the education of these children should not have to be sacrificed any further! There are hundreds of Gov year 11 students who are preparing for their CXC and other exams right now and going through mock exams at this very moment.
I heard there was over 90 teachers who took the survey on whether they want to leave or not. So let’s say 60 of them said yes. How are you going to find back up teachers that can take the load of 60 teachers ?
All the unemployed caymanians could substitute…right?
Sounds like a great idea
I will email the ministry of education about how retarded this idea is and its purpose being to facilitate some important persons sister-in-law to go on vacation. Our kids have been traumatized by COVID, enough of this nonsense. It will be forced on the private schools also. Another hint of where we are heading, independence!
Juju is rivaling Tara as the worst minister of education ever!
Somewhere in a dark corner of a bar filled with latinas Alden and Rollie are having a few drinks and smiling enjoying the sights and sounds of this latest disastrous decision by the education ministry.
So are employers going to give their staff 2 weeks EXTRA off at Christmas so parents can stay home with their kids?
So that’s what the Bajan charter flights are for. All makes sense now.
Expats choose to come here. They are not entitled to any more or less than what is spelled out in their contracts. They accept the fact that they are going to be away from their families for extended periods of time. If they didn’t want this arrangement they shouldn’t have chosen work abroad. How long did the old seamen would go without seeing their families? They didn’t have technology such as Zoom & Facetime. Considering the technology we have today, there is ample opportunity for expats to “see” their families whenever they want without actually closing schools for an extra 2 weeks.
. Yes they signed contracts fully knowing they’ll be away from their family but they also sign the contracts knowing that they can go home for holidays. So now that the holidays are taken away from them you think they should go without seeing their family and kids while you get to see yours everyday. Like it’s 2 weeks !!!!
Holidays have been taken away from many of us who have not seen our families this year and will not be able to see our families, teachers are special yes, but would not class as essential for Holidays, we all are human.
They’re not the only ones that haven’t been with their families. What makes them more special than the rest of us? My grandson is one year old and I still haven’t seen him except in pictures.
STOP already ! Please.
This has to be the worst proposal of 2020.
Absolutely unnecessary in every way , shape and form.
Juju just gave teachers 1,000 p m raise. now 2 extra weeks vacation. she must believe money really grows on trees in Cayman. Come on Brackers learn some sense in May next year.
Agreed. Thank you PPM and associates for helping me make up my mind. This should have been announced in Sept 2020. Min Education and the tourism industry fail to understand that covid 19 has now change the landscape.
Are we now all getting two extra weeks vacation per year. There is no longer short trips.
Janaican teachers want to go home so of course they have to be accomodated whilst parents pay the price. Future voters I’m sure.
I’m a Jamaican teacher and I do not wish to travel to Jamaica this dec. Stop making irresponsible blanket statements about a group of ppl you cannot account for.
Exactly! That makes no sense, “Jamaican teachers want to go home.” If that person knows anything, they’ll know Jamaican teachers receive the worse treatment in most schools and I know because I’ve worked in more than one and don’t get me started on the current school…🤐🤐
While I still don’t understand how 22% wanted to travel and the decision was made, the fact still remains that the Ministry or someone realized that the teachers and students are suffering and need a break. It will affect the kids, but someone needs to answer this, how would you parents feel if you found out that your child is only taught about 5% of the curriculum on any day due to the fact that certain administrators don’t care about teaching and learning like that? Have you all ever wondered why your children fail the tests? I support children being in school 100% of the time, but at this rate, home learning is better for now. One last thing, students performed better during covid than they are now IN PERSON. Let me tell you all why, certain schools continue to focus on everything else except learning then they will blame teachers, parents and students.
So is that 2 weeks vacation and then 2 weeks to quarantine or 4 weeks vacation and then 2 weeks to quarantine and if found covid positive then another 2 weeks to quarantine? How will this work for parents that will need child care?
Will they put on extra flights to accommodate travel?
So many questions so few answers, I think it’s time for a press briefing.
Excellent point! What if these teachers end up testing positive at the end of their 14-day quarantine? What happens then in terms of return to school?
It’s two additional weeks vacation. The ministry plans on extending the school year to July 16th 2021 to make up for the two weeks additional Christmas break.
typical teachers…typical cig civil service.
just another day in wonderland
The teachers didn’t know about this, how is this ‘typical teachers’?
Thank you ! People just be talking out there behind and don’t know nothing
Let me guess, Public School English teacher?
A certain subset of teachers lobbied for this, JuJu didn’t come up with all on her own.
Teachers were not aware of the proposal and to the best of my knowledge no teacher asked for it either. Point the finger at your government. Not all teachers are over the moon and ready to jet off Dec 18.
I know some of the teachers don’t approved this embarrassment with government. Now they will have shorter summer vacation by 2 weeks!
Wow. Thankfully my children attend private school and get a proper education.
Let’s hope they learn a little humility while they are in school; they probably don’t learn much at home.
Yeah right. The private schools are just as bad and in many ways much worse!
Why are people allowed to go on shopping trips to USA?
Because this is not a prison island!
It kinda is.
Government needs to answer!
Where are they travellng to? Last BA flight is 15 Dec and are Cayman Airways not fully booked?
No cayman airways is not fully booked. There are multiple flights to miami and Jamaica
Its fully booked back in until the end of January. If you are a teacher looking to book a trip home for Christmas at this stage you are not going to see your class in person until February. So this is either a response to finding out teachers had already booked leave, or its a completely meaningless concession.
It’s not fully booked, before you try to correct somebody. Just depends on which route your taking
Essential travel?
Why are there? Government never announced jolly holidays?
You people don’t even understand half of what these teachers go through. Their work doesn’t stop at 3:30pm when school gets out. They are working through out the day from 7:30am- 10pm grading papers, responding to emails etc. Even on holiday break they’re are still working while you others get to enjoy your families with no interruptions. I feel that caymankind is a made up phrase because I haven’t seen it yet !
Maybe it is time that gov teachers look to modernize their assignments. For instances assigning home work on line and having the computer mark the quizzes/ home work.
Oh my, you sound like a private school teacher unaware of the different socioeconomic group that most gov high school kid belongs to. Sorry you’re so unaware.
Wake up..
Some of these kids do not have stable internet at home and those with access to computers share said device with other children in the house. Limiting work to online would greatly disadvantage the students.
CIS: don’t even think about it.
Honestly, CIS, do not do this. We have all been through enough. We all paid our full school fees throughout lockdown. Do not push us over the edge!
If CIS copy this extended break my daughter will be finding another school that day.
Where they finding return flights?
This benefits more than just the schools teachers. Parents who were worried about leaving the country and how the quarantine requirements would affect their kids schooling doesn’t have to worry about that anymore. You can’t please everybody. The government has made a way for people to get to travel take it or leave it
They should have advised earlier so people could actually make plans and bookings!
Huh?
Are you slow ? This break is just not for teachers.
Teachers not being allowed to travel home to be with their families is not essential travel? But your get up and go to Miami on a shopping spree for your Christmas whatevers is! Pot calling the kettle black.
Not going anywhere. Never go Miami sweet kettle pot!
Wtf! Who came up with this bright idea?! They clearly didn’t factor in that ppl have jobs and can’t just stay home with kids as Govt sees fit. Ridiculous!
Hire a babysitter….problem solved. School is not a daycare.
Yes. Because there are SO many qualified babysitters out there waiting around doing nothing. I certainly would not leave my kids with someone I have not vetted and trust implicitly.
Clearly you don’t have kids. Thank F***! Please keep it that way 😉
No I don’t. I use ppl like you as my example for reasons to not have kids I’m not willing to make room in my life for. Government closes schools for 2wks and you ppl don’t know what to do with your kids? Unplanned and unprepared families.
Pack a bag of snacks and activities, favourite games and toys, a blanket and bring the child to work with you. Call other parents make and arrangements for play dates, pool money together and get a day helper. OR contact the teachers and see if they will be on Island and would be ok with providing extra tutoring. Or you could just give your child up to someone who is better prepared to handle problems like this.
Thank you ! These ppl feel like government should do everything for them. Y’all are adults right ? Well find a way. It’s literally two weeks and most of the people complaining have kids that are well above the age to stay home by themselves
it’s not two weeks. It’s a month. Parents would have made arrangements for the December break. These children need to be in school preparing for exams.
It’s two weeks, not a month. As a parent (if you are) you would have already been aware of and prepared for the December break which is 2wks. The extension in January is what you have to now figure out and that is 2wks.
Absolutely agree with the above comments and I’m a teacher. We need to utilise the time available for our KS4 students to catch up from the initial lockdown.
If necessary, there will be enough subject teachers here to run classes for these groups to have extra time off timetable to complete coursework like SBA’s and then be free to run on completing their coursework instruction they missed last year.
Just a thought.
It is my opinion that the government deliberately does these things to keep Caymanian kids as uneducated as possible.
They keep them dumb so that when they turn eighteen, they will accept $25 and a turkey in return for a vote. These kids can barely speak, read or write. They will never have the brains to question the relentless corruption oozing out of every, single facet of Cayman.
Caymanian kids and parents: please do something useful with the additional time off.
Why just teachers, what about the Civil Service?.
CS people already have 2 days a week, Mondays and Fridays as non mandatory work days. Put this together with all the sick days CS enjoys and take frequently just because of minor ailments such as “painy belly”. This is not to mention all the other non mandatory works days such as rain days, storm days and “just not wokin’ today” days and “mi hair don’t look good today” days.
Any more holidays and our CS will seize up for good!
How will we tell?
Include “ My Granny she sick “…
LOL
Great! They should be able to spend time with their families
More notice should have been given if this was the plan, perhaps families here would like to travel to see their families abroad and could if we had been given more notice of this.
That is true that there should have been more notice but you have to take what you can get
Good! The teachers deserve it. Those government kids can be a lot to handle
Did not know the government had children
They are known in some circles as “Civil Servants”
Any child can be too much too handle – not just because a child attends a government school.
Very good! Caymanians are some of the most selfish people I ever met. Teachers from all over should be able to spend time with there family as well as the caymanians get to. I don’t see why people feel that government should please EVERYBODY. While you all get to see your kids everyday, some teachers haven’t seen their kids since last year. With the people preaching saying they haven’t seen their family either, atleast you have the choice whether you want to leave or not they don’t since the school doesn’t allow them too.
I am an ex-pat who has not seen my own children and parents in a year. I am in what I consider an essential job and accept it will not be until the vaccine and other easements, so accept I cannot travel with the expectation of risk abroad, and quarantine. It’s tough, but it is what it is. Fortunate to be free to socialise in Cayman this Christmas while around the world they are locked down. Why are teachers being given this time? Should get on and look forward to the summer.
Only a complete idiot could have come up with such a stupid idea.
Meet our Minister of Education….
Completely idiotic idea! Inappropriate in every way! Has government completely lost it?
Probably have a gay marriage to stop
Unbelievably idiotic. The kids have missed enough school and while we would all like to leave for holidays this is not the time. Idiocy of the highest degree.
Haven’t kids missed enough school? I can only see this setting them back further..
Theyre making up the two weeks in the 2021 academic year. So technically it’s not putting them back at all
Well, if this is so, two weeks added to summer, why not tell us? It really is too late to make plans, even if travelers wanted to. And frankly, I don’t think it’s smart. The rest of the world is spiking – just stay put and keep yourself, your overseas relatives, and us safe upon your return. However, by summer vacation there should be a vaccine and it will be safer to travel.
Parents will have trouble finding childcare for these two weeks on such quick notice.
Students will lose out, particularly the little ones and those high schoolers who have exams in January.
Just not well thought out at all.
SBAs are due in March and exams are in June so two extra weeks in July are a waste.
CXC has announced that exams are now pushed down until July. So really it’s not a waste. Exams now end on July 16th.
CXC’s are a waste.
I agree but unfortunately, the school system here has them.
They also have exams in January that they should be preparing for not sitting at home wasting time. The children are just getting used to being back in school and now they’ll be out for a whole month. Then the following week is exam. Yes, July is a waste. What about the parents? Maybe, we made plans for early July?
It doesn’t matter how many days the students miss in 2020, they were already behind. Stop blaming teachers and address the right people.
2018-2019 was a full year actually there were no interruptions over the last 4 school years; no major hurricane or covid and guess what? The students failed so teachers are not the problem. We could start with parental involvement and expectations though.
You lot are ungrateful!
Utterly ridiculous, going home for the holidays is not essential travel and our children are already playing catch up from the major school disruptions earlier this year.
So you would rather people be depressed or commit suicide for you to understand that this pandemic takes a mental toll on EVERYBODY. Teachers or not they are human beings first with family. Stop being so ungreatful bobo
You’re a drama king.
Says someone who is already home, and feels the expat slaves should be denied time with their families at Christmas because it will inconvenience his life. Nice.
The students are trying to catch up? Have you meet the students here? 2wks won’t make a difference for the vast majority of them. They’ll still be the in the same academic position even if schools operated all year round. The students who are really interested in learning will know exactly how to reach their teacher over the 2wk period.