NIA CHARLESTOWN NEVIS (July 27, 2020) – Hon. Troy Liburd, Junior Minister of Education in the Nevis Island Administration (NIA), has given the assurance that plans to make schools on the island COVID-19 complaint in time to open for the 2020-2021 school year, are well advanced.

Acknowledging increased inquiries from parents regarding the reopening of schools, Minister Liburd explained that the Ministry of Education on Nevis has been working with Education officials at the Federal level to put new COVID-19 protocols in place for primary and secondary schools.

Giving an update during a July 23, 2020 town hall meeting in Cotton Ground, hosted by the NIA, Mr. Liburd said the ministry is working assiduously to make sure schools will be in a position to open.

“We are preparing for the opening of our primary schools and high schools in September. The Ministry of Education is working in collaboration with the Ministry on St. Kitts to ensure that all of our schools in the Federation will be in a position to open come September. It would mean that some retrofitting would have to be done on our schools, and protocols would have to be developed. As a matter of fact, both ministries are working on protocols. We have seen a draft copy of the protocols that we are trying to put in place in both St. Kitts and Nevis.

“We are working together to see what would be the best fit for us to move forward; so there is quite a bit that’s going on behind the scenes to try to get schools up to standard to re-open in September in this era of COVID-19,” he said.

He stressed the importance of schools’ having proper sanitisation and social distancing protocols in place to ensure that students can go back to physical learning and do so in a safe environment.

A COVID-19 Compliance and Enforcement checklist has already been established for Early Childhood Development Centres on Nevis. It has been distributed to service providers, in order to have preschools and daycare centres meet the new standards to re-open in short order.