Public, private, and foreign schools will reopen for on-campus learning in late September and early October amid stringent health precautions by authorities, Education Minister Ali Al-Mudhaf said yesterday.
All foreign-language schools will reopen for students on Sept 26, they will be allowed to offer online classes before this date. Public and private Arabic schools will reopen on Oct 3, the minister said.
The maximum capacity for any classroom will be 20 with students sitting two meters apart. A strict mask mandate for students will be enforced, he added.
Public and private Arabic school classes will be divided into two groups: The first group will attend on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday, while the second group will attend on Monday and Wednesday. In the next week, groups will swap attendance and will continue to alternate on-campus attendance, the minister said.
The duration of each period has been extended to one hour from 45 minutes to allow teachers to compensate for any loss in education due to the closure of schools from last year.
Mudhaf said a majority of teachers, students and administrators have been vaccinated, and those who choose not to get vaccinated are required to undergo a PCR test every week on Sunday. Students are prohibited from gathering in any form, while all group activities are banned, he underlined.
