"Preparations well underway to reopen schools in July" says ministry

Ministry of Education has revealed that a number of arrangements are underway to prepare for the reopening of schools in July.

During a press briefing at the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) earlier, the minister of education noted that the government is preparing to reopen schools under the new normal from July 1 onwards and that they have the required budget for it.

As such, the ministry has begun disbursing essential supplies including disinfectants, sanitizers and hand washing equipment to schools under the preparations.

Highlighting that these supplies have been disbursed across most of the schools now, the ministry revealed that they have sought aid from UNICEF to acquire hand washing soaps, however, the rest of the supplies were acquired through the ministry’s budget.

Further, work is also underway to establish hand-washing stations at schools, which will be completed by the time schools reopen, said the ministry.

Other equipment being supplied include thermal screening equipment to check if those arriving through the gate have high temperatures.

Highlighting that by the time schools reopen, all of the required construction work will be completed, the ministry noted that they are receiving generous free aid from some construction companies in this work.

The ministry has also begun a training program for about 11,000 teachers across the nation, to provide basic psychosocial support and psychological first aid for students who may have been mentally affected by the current situation amid the Covid-19 crisis.

Support staff at local schools have also been trained to use disinfectant and sanitizers.

Schools are to be reopened under the three-year education response plan. The plan to open up schools was formed in collaboration with UNICEF and has been divided into five components; safe operations, education and learning, proceeding without interruption, reaching out to vulnerable students and resilience building.

Education ministry revealed that the required budget for preparations to reopen schools was allocated by the joint efforts from the government, UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO)’s support.

The ministry has forwarded a guideline to be followed once schools open to the new normal, to all schools.

Rules mentioned under the guidelines to be followed include advising students and teachers against going to school should they develop coronavirus-like symptoms.

Almost three months have passed since Maldives closed schools due to Covid-19 fears.