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Weekly Current, 24 Jan. 2022

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 24 Jan. 2022 (National Heroes Day)

Weekly Current (archived version)

COVID’s impact on education in Cayman and neighbouring jurisdictions. EdBeat is back for 2022. Boarding school fair coming soon.

And more!

Welcome to this week’s newsletter on education in the Cayman Islands.

(Click here to sign up for our email list.)

Week In Review

The ‘COVID-19 bubble’ burst in the Cayman Islands this fall, with the country experiencing its first true community spread of the virus since the pandemic began.

However, the territory’s exceptionally high vaccination rate, along with policies such as mandatory mask-wearing, social distancing and rapid-response testing, have allowed Cayman’s schools to remain open for in-person learning through the current school year.

While individual schools have had to grapple with staff and student absences during the current wave of the Omicron variant, there has been no public discussion of potentially closing schools or shifting to online learning during the Spring semester.

As it has been throughout the pandemic, the experience in our territory has been the exception rather than the rule, compared to countries that are near Cayman geographically, or with whom Cayman has close ties.

Every 6 months or so, we check in on 9 of our neighbours to compare COVID cases, COVID deaths, vaccination rates and approaches to managing the spread of the virus in schools.

The bottom line is that Cayman has experienced far fewer COVID deaths per capita, has a relatively high vaccination rate and has had far fewer disruptions to in-person schooling than just about anywhere else.

Here are highlights from the places we looked at:

  • Cuba — The only place on our list with a higher vaccination rate than Cayman. Most schools reopened in November. Officials are grappling with keeping schools open through Omicron.
  • British Virgin Islands — BVI’s bubble burst in the summer of 2021 and now has had nearly 8 times as many deaths per capita as Cayman. Schools shifted to virtual learning to start the January 2022 term.
  • Jamaica — Has the lowest vaccination rate on our list. As of last week, an estimated 60% of schools had reopened.
  • Bermuda — Delays in government testing for COVID resulted in ‘mass absenteeism’ to start the January 2022 term. The local teachers’ union blasted the government for the ‘massively botched’ reopening plan.
  • Canada — Third-highest vaccination rate on our list. Some schools were open for in-person learning, and the general goal was for all schools to be reopened by Monday 17 Jan.
  • Texas — Most schools remained open in the Fall 2021 semester, as the state government withdrew funding for students attending school remotely. Many schools are facing staff shortages due to Omicron.
  • Florida — A state law was enacted that prevents public schools from mandating masks for children. Omicron infections prevented more than 100,000 people, just in the Miami area, from returning to school in January 2020.
  • New York — State officials tried to keep schools open physically throughout this school year. However, the Omicron wave compelled leaders to recently offer online learning as an alternative.
  • United Kingdom — Regular rapid test screening of students and staff have helped to keep schools open. However, like many other places, Omicron has caused severe staff shortages to begin the January 2022 term.

(Read our story on COVID’s impact on education here.)

The Cayman Islands government recently changed requirements for COVID isolation and quarantine, due to Omicron quickly becoming the dominant local variant. The requirements differ based on a person’s age and whether or not they’ve been vaccinated.

However, as a point of clarification, the new requirements do not affect existing guidelines for lateral flow testing of local students.

The rule is: If a person tests positive for COVID, unvaccinated children under 18 in their household may continue to attend school as long as they continue to test negative on daily LFTs for 10 days.

(Read our story about COVID requirements for students and adults here.)

On Sunday afternoon, we released the first episode of EdBeat for 2022. On the show, Patrick Brendel of the Cayman Current and April Cummings of Cayman Life TV talk about COVID in schools, the Office of Education Standard’s decision to delay school inspections and other topics.

(Watch EdBeat: Episode 27 here.)

If you are thinking of boarding school as an option for your children, get out your calendar and circle 29 Jan., when a Boarding Schools Fair is being held to give parents information about schools in the UK and Canada.

(Read our story for more details.)

More from the Current

Around The Web

The Current is a central resource for education journalism by others, including regional and international news relevant to Cayman education. (Find our running collection of links here.)

The Week Ahead

  • EdBeat: Episode 28
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