Public school students who do not have a device or internet capability will be able to continue learning although schools are closed due to the corona virus. The Hon. Jeffrey Lloyd, Minister of Education, in a Communication to the House of Assembly, Monday, April 6, announced that beginning, Wednesday, April 15, 2020 Cable Bahamas will dedicate two channels (295 and 296) for the ‘live’ broadcasting of educational content by the Ministry of Education (MOE).
Minister Lloyd told Parliamentarians that a large number of public school students do not have a device or internet capability but have to continue learning.
Each day from 9 am to 3pm, Monday to Friday, the broadcast will cover programming in the following:
1. Instructional (Live and recorded lessons streamed from the Virtual School)
2. Informational
3. Character Building
Channel 295 for students studying for their BJC, and BGCSE only; 296 will cover content for all other grades.
Minister Lloyd said the Ministry is awaiting a date for launch from Cable Bahamas.
He recalled that in 2019, a Learning Management System, called One-on-One, a collaboration with the Bahamas Telecommunication Company Limited (BTC), the Cable & Wireless Foundation and Sandals Foundation accepted an offer by the MOE to provide three months of remote, online classes for public school students in Abaco, Grand Bahama and other family islands who were displaced by Hurricane Dorian.
Throughout the three-month period, students and teachers were engaged in a virtual classroom on weekends on the One-on-One virtual platform, to take them through lessons on the five subjects including Mathematics and Language for the BJC & BGCSE curricula.
He informed that Cabinet will, this week, consider a proposal to supplement the instruction being offered through its own Virtual Schooling initiative by providing remote instruction from April – June, 2020 via the One-on-One platform for all students in Grades K-12 in the public and private sectors. He said the virtual learning space mirrors what the students would be doing in a regular school day — two periods in the morning, a break, two more periods, then lunch.
“Covid-19 has created a tremendous learning gap, that if not addressed can result in a potentially irrecoverable deficit for students in the Bahamian education sector,” said Minister Lloyd. “There is currently no data available on private sector students receiving virtual learning. The MOE received many requests for general financial assistance, and has now increased grant-in-aid subventions since Hurricane Dorian: a number of the New Providence based private schools took in a number of displaced students, particularly students from Abaco.
“Since the COVID 19 crisis, anecdotal evidence affirms that many private institutions are struggling with the provision of on-line classes, particularly for their students who have no internet connectivity.
“In this regard, the One-On-One proposal for facilitating pre-recorded lessons via Flow TV makes this proposal particularly critical for the MOE. This arrangement would enable all teachers in The Bahamas in public and private schools to access live, remote classes with their students for a period of two-and-a-half months, commencing April 20, 2020, while exercising social distancing in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic,” added Minister Lloyd.
Parents, guardians and care-givers are urged to register their students through the Ministry’s web page by taking the following steps:
Go to www.ministryofeducationbahamas.com
Find the link that says virtual learning portal
Click on that link; and register.
Students who are already registered can go to their respective grades and begin their work.
See below, the full remarks given by Minister Jeff Lloyd in the House of Assembly on April 6th, 2020.
Minister Lloyd’s Communication in the House of Assembly – April 6, 2020
