The taskforce is chaired by Education Minister Fayval Williams.

Mrs Williams said regular updates will be provided on decisions made by the group.

Speaking Thursday on the Morning Agenda on Power 106, the Education Minister noted that the purpose of Friday’s meeting is to “lay out to them our thinking, to get from them their collective wisdom on the process as we go along.”

“We know that we have to communicate with the broader society and we are committed to doing that, so I don’t want to preempt anything right here this morning. I want to give the task force the chance to come together tomorrow. If we have to meet every day to hammer out things up until schools opening, we will. And of course, we are going to continue after that to ensure the continued management of our schools in a safe way in this COVID environment,” she said.

The members of the E-Covid Task Force include representatives of the Jamaica Teachers Association, the Jamaica Association of Principals of Secondary Schools, the Joint Committee for Tertiary Education and the Jamaica Union of Tertiary Students.

In the meantime, the Education Minister said each school will be assessed individually on their readiness to reopen on October 5, “to ensure that at the end of the day, we are comfortable that the school has the rigour that we require them to have to help our students, teachers and administrators through this process.”