Basseterre: St. Kitts, April 17, 2020: Minister of Education Hon. Shawn Richards has unveiled
the ministry’s plan for a phased approach to student learning as the ministry remains responsive
and alert to the required changes to the school calendar as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Commenting on his ministry’s commitment to the health, safety and education of its constituents
in the teaching and learning process, the minister advised that Educational institutions would
remain closed initially for an additional two weeks.
As a first phase of the Home Based Continued Education Plan, the minister revealed that a
selection of educational materials, lessons and activity suggestions to support continued
education in the home have been compiled by the Early Childhood Development Unit and the
Curriculum Development Unit.
These can be accessed from Monday, 20th April by visiting the ministry’s website at
www.education.gov.kn. It is important to note that these suggested educational resources were
compiled locally and are organised by grades and subject areas.
Also in phase one, Flow Study SKN will be implemented from Monday April 20 over a period of
two weeks. During this time, all primary and secondary school students in St. Kitts and Nevis
will be issued usernames and passwords to access the self-paced Flow Study site.
Minister Richards highlighted the benefits of using the ministry-issued log in information. These
include providing a simplified registration process, technical support from the ministry as well as
ongoing student support when they return to school. He underscored the fact that data that will
be collected based on students’ online activity and this would be used subsequently by their
classroom teachers.
Phase two of the Home-Based Learning Programme will come on stream should the need for
schools to remain closed need be extended. This Home based learning would involve the use of
Microsoft Teams a virtual classroom learning platform.
As such, the minister stated that training for teachers in the use of Microsoft Teams will resume
on Monday, 20th April while students are engaged with the Flow Study self-paced learning
platform.
The minister indicated that in keeping with the Ministry’s policy of education for all, it will
ensure that every student is able to experience continuity of education in spite of the current
realities. As such, previously identified students, teachers and households will be provided with
devices and Internet connectivity.
The deputy prime minister commended highly the efforts of Flow, The Cable and Digicel
corporate partners in enhancing the efforts to ensure access to the online learning platforms being
utilized.
Commenting on the collaborative efforts of the Federal Ministry of Education and the Ministry
of Education on Nevis, Minister Richards was full of praise for the efforts of involved
departments in the planning and implementation process. These included the Administrative
Department, Education Planning Division (curriculum Development Unit and Education
Management Information System Unit), the Education Services Department, Education
leadership in Nevis and the Education Media Unit.
The re-opening of schools after this initial two week period of extended closure (20th April to 1
st
May, 2020) remains contingent on public health guidance provided by the Chief Medical Officer
(presently Dr. Hazel Laws) and the Covid-19 Task Force.
