Education Ministry allows onsite classes in new school year

The ministry announced on its website that schools should provide as much onsite classes as possible without using vaccination as a condition to bar students from attending classes.

But the ministry said it would continue its campaign to encourage parents to get their children from kindergarten to vocational schools vaccinated against Covid.

The ministry has said that the new school year will start on May 17 and there would be no postponement.

The ministry said schools must provide online teaching to students, who cannot go to schools because they are in vulnerable groups. But if the vulnerable students have no gadgets for studying online, their schools must provide on-hand teaching, meaning the teachers must assign books and homework for the students to study on their own at home.

For students, who come to study onsite, the schools must apply six measures:

- Make sure students are seated at appropriate distance

- Students must always wear face mask

- They must wash hands regularly

- Students must take a temperature test before entering school

- Schools must reduce crowdedness in the compound

- Schools must regularly clean classrooms and other facilities.

Schools must also tell children to regularly monitor their own health condition and they must not eat with friends. They must also register upon arrival and on leaving the school compound.

The schools must also ensure that activities for students will be held in small groups and students must carry a school pass for tracking their medical record.

The schools must also evaluate the situation and report it to the ministry regularly, the ministry added.