Children attending a class on the opening day of the Pre-Primary wing of the Stafford Sri Lankan School Doha. PicS: Salim Matramkot/The Peninsula
The government and private schools have started operating smoothly by strictly following the precautionary measures to curb the spread of COVID-19.
The additional safety measures adopted by schools and kindergartens have helped in reducing the worry of parents regarding their children’s safety in schools.
The officials of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education and the Ministry of Public Health are frequently visiting schools to take stock of the safety measures. The health officials have assured that adequate measures have been implemented by schools to prevent spreading of the infection.
Director of Health and Safety Department at the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, Mohamad Al Muraghi said that the Department coordinated with the Ministry of Public Health to ensure a healthy environment in schools.
Speaking to Al Rayan TV recently, Al Muraghi said that the Department held a number of workshops for directors of government and private schools on preventive and precautionary measures and protocol to deal with suspected cases in schools.
He said that the protocol includes setting up isolated room for suspected cases until the authority concerned take the necessary procedures. In such cases, he said, all people who would have come in contact with the suspected person will be tested. Al Muraghi said that the Ministry of Public Health has trained all nurses in schools on this protocol and the members of health and safety committees of schools as well.
School administrators said that they received a high number of students during the first week and expect more students in the coming weeks with the beginning of classroom teaching. There are 283 public schools and preschools and 334 private schools and kindergartens with over 340,000 students enrolled for the academic year 2020-21.
The decision of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education to adopt blended learning – combining classroom teaching with distance learning – requires only 30 percent attendance of the total capacity of schools and has helped greatly in maintaining social distancing for students during transportation and at schools.
Principal of Pakistan International School Qatar (PISQ), Nargis Raza Otho said that following the decision of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education to adopt blended learning system, the school has started its academic program from September 6, keeping in view the demands of on-campus teaching and the needs of those pursuing their studies through distance learning.
She said that apart from classroom teaching, PISQ is providing around 4,000 students the facility of distance learning programme through video lessons and zoom lectures. “We, at PISQ, never compromise on quality, and will make full use of all the available resources in order to facilitate our students studying through remote learning,” Nargis added.
She said that school attendance on the first day of blended learning programme was very high. “We received over 85 percent students of the total required attendance of 30 percent as per the instructions received by the Ministry of Education and Higher Education. Since the students had been studying from home for quite some time, they were really excited to meet their fellows and teachers, and experience the academic milieu on-campus once again,” said Nargis.
She explained that in previous years, the students took about two weeks to get back into the school routine, and student attendance hardly reached this level.
Speaking about the safety measures, Otho said: “Last week, we conducted orientation classes to educate the students about the preventive and precautionary measures to be followed while at campus with a purpose to curb the spread of coronavirus. All the teachers and other members of the staff have been given adequate training to deal with any emergency and to implement safety protocol including the observance of social distancing and performing thermal screening.”
Edward S Fernando, Administrator at Stafford Sri Lankan School-Doha said that the school started classroom teaching following the decision of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education. “The school received pretty good number of students which is increasing by the time. Since the attendance is required only 30 percent of the school capacity, remaining students are being taught online through Zoom application,” said Fernando.
Founder Director at The Next Generation School (TNG), Riyaz Amed Bakali said that students love the concept of hybrid learning system. “The hybrid learning is challenging but it is innovative. The students will get more freedom for learning,” said Bakali.
He said that the success of blended learning depends on proper training to staffs and provision of education tools which were provided by TNG. Bakali said that the students were very excited to see their teachers and classmates after about six-month-long break caused by COVID-19 epidemic and summer vacations.
“The Next Generation School operates seven campuses accommodating over 2,000 students implementing adequate measures to prevent students from infection,” said Bakali.
Principal of Bangladesh MHM School, Mohammad Jashim Uddin said that the school reopened after implementing all preventive and precautionary measures like disinfecting school campus, installing thermal screening and keeping sanitisers at several points. He said that all school staffs have undergone corovirus tests and they have tested negative.
“Bangladesh MHM School, which has over 1,200 students, is functioning smoothly following the blended learning system adopted by the Ministry of Education and Higher Education,” said Jashim Uddin.
Parents said that blended learning is the best in current scenario because it would help increasing education quality curbing COVID-19 infection. Parents confirmed that they received usernames and passwords from schools to access online platforms. However, some parents said that they are communicating to schools to activate the system.
