Chastanet: ‘Our Students Should Not Have To Pay For Bad Policies’

20th January 2022

By Office of the Leader of the Opposition

PRESS RELEASE - The Government is working in reverse and must begin to take decisions while also looking at the impact of those decisions on the future.

If the Government cared about the reopening of school in January we would not have seen this laissez-faire attitude to the protocols in December.

We have a situation of a Government operating with no plan and they have a blueprint. We worked hard during our time to establish solid policies for schools operating during COVID-19.

What we needed to see was the foresight ahead of the Christmas season that would have minimized the impact on schools and the economy. If the Government thought reopening schools was important then some sacrifices should have been made for the longer term benefit. That is what leadership is about.

Saint Lucians can all see that the reopening of school has been a complete disaster. A major area that the Government missed the mark was with consultation and communication.

Where is the information on the education sector with regard to COVID-19? How can parents have confidence in sending their children to school if they don’t have the information? This was an administration who while in opposition cried that there was lack of consultation. Yet, here we are with their first major school term opening and there has been a freezing out of the stakeholders. Our students are now suffering because of the bad policy decisions of this administration.

As a Party we too want to see children at school because we believe that for some students school can be the safest place but this must be done in a way that all can have confidence in the plan. It is obvious that neither teachers, principals or parents have that confidence that they or their children are safe.

With the Government’s announced adjustment to school operations, I am advising that the SLP administration fix the issues of poor communication, lack of a strategy and poorly administered COVID-19 protocols which have plagued the re-opening of school, leaving students, parents, teachers and school administrators completely lost and confused.