THERE WILL BE no Easter vacation for schoolchildren in Barbados this year. They will enjoy “Easter celebrations at home”, however.
In keeping with the 12-week duration for the Hilary term, children will be going on holiday on or around March 24, an entire month before Easter, which normally coincides with the break.
But Minister of Education and Human Resource Management Ronald Jones does not see this “peculiar” situation as a case of the education officials being caught napping.
“We weren’t caught napping. In order to accommodate we would have to extend the term . . . The emphasis of education is educating.
“We look at the impact of holidays as we set out our schedule. This year, 2011, because of the way it [Easter] has fallen, it means that that has impacted on us. It has not caught us napping or not napping. Our task is educating,” he insisted.
“This is just a peculiar circumstance that has developed, where Easter is coming further down than usual,” he noted.
Jones said that the school calendars were set three years in advance.
“ . . . When Easter comes, they will get Good Friday home and Easter Bank Holiday; come back to school on April 26. They will still get their Easter celebrations at home . . . . There is nothing known as Easter vacation; there is a period called vacation.
“You call it Easter; we call it vacation,” he said, adding that making the term 14 weeks was not an option. (YB)
