Though Covid Emergency Orders prohibit schools on New Providence from having in-person classes during the state of emergency, Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis has granted The Windsor School at Albany special permission to allow its students to return to campus for face to face instructions.
The special permission comes after two students at the school tested positive for Covid-19 in September.
Windsor, tucked away in southwestern New Providence, caters to the children of the island's rich and powerful. The decision to grant the elite school special permission sparked debate on the government’s double standards in the treatment of the well-connected and the average Bahamian when enforcing COVID-19 regulations.
"I, Hubert A. Minnis, Prime Minister of The Bahamas and the Competent Authority, in consultation with the Ministry of Health and the Minister of Education, and pursuant to Paragraph 52 of Emergency Powers, do hereby exempt the Windsor School at Albany from the restrictions contained in Paragraph 43(2) of the said order, so as to permit the Windsor School to open for in-person instruction of students," Minnis said in a letter addressed to Dr. Mark Ott and dated November 11, 2020.
In March, the government ordered the closure of schools after the country recorded its first COVID-19 case, resulting in many local institutions shifting to online classes to allow students to continue their studies at home.
At the start of the new school year in October, many private schools spent thousands of dollars taking safety precautions to allow for the safe return of students to classrooms. However, after the country witnessed the second wave of the coronavirus, Minnis once again prohibited in-person lessons on New Providence.