BELIZE CITY, Thurs. July 22, 2021– Teachers are currently being urged to get vaccinated, or they may be required to get tested every two weeks. If they do not get vaccinated and refuse to be tested biweekly, they might not be allowed to return to the classroom come August when classes resume.

Minister of Education, Hon. Francis Fonseca, when interviewed on Thursday afternoon, confirmed that as of Tuesday of this week, roughly 70% of teachers had at least received a single dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Fonseca said that the Ministry has set a target to have at least 80% of teachers vaccinated by the beginning of the school year, which was a goal set by the Ministry of Education in collaboration with the BNTU.

In regard to SI 74, which will require unvaccinated teachers and other frontline workers to be tested biweekly, Fonseca said, “Well, first of all, as you know, the vaccine is not mandatory. That has been something that has been thrown out there as a sort of red herring – to take away some message of the SI. Vaccines are not mandatory for teachers, but the government is absolutely committed to using every tool, every facility available to it, every incentive if you like, to ensuring that our population is fully vaccinated. So, in terms of our teachers, they are not required to be vaccinated, but we are insisting, as is proved for in the SI, that if you’re not vaccinated then you have to produce a test.”

He then addressed a question that many have had — who will be covering the cost of the biweekly testing: “That test is not free to teachers, it’s not free to anyone. Of course, as you know, there is free testing available. But for the purposes of this SI, the testing is not free, so that should be clear. And what we want to do is to ensure that there’s an orderly process, and we’re going to work with the managing authorities to determine what is best. In education, there’s no one size fits all. So what works in some communities and in some managing authorities won’t work in others. Just because of the amount of teachers you’re dealing with. But the managing authorities working along with the MOE will work out how best to deal with that. For example, if a teacher is not vaccinated one option available to managing authorities is to have that teacher dedicated fully to online teaching. And so, until you get fully vaccinated, you will not be able to go into the classroom and participate in face-to-face learning. So those are the sorts of things that are being considered and worked out,” he said.

Fonseca went on to emphasize that an opportunity presents itself for further spread of the virus if a teacher enters the classroom with the virus. He thus urged all teachers to get vaccinated for the benefit of not only themselves, but the students and their families.