By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Jan. 11: The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST) on Monday decided to close all schools across the country from Tuesday as per the recommendation of the COVID-19 Crisis Management Coordination Centre (CCMCC).
A meeting of CMCC on Sunday recommended the government to close schools for 15 days starting from January 15.

As per the recommendation, the Ministry has also asked them to adjust this leave with their annual vacations.
The schools are going to close for the third time after March 2020 to control the spread of COVID-19.
The Ministry, however, has asked the schools to connect the students with alternative learning even during the vacation.

A statement issued by spokesperson for the ministry Deepak Sharma reads that the ministry decided to close schools from January 11 to January 29 considering the mounting cases of Covid-19 and confirmation of infection of omicron variant of the virus as well as the health and security of the students.

In the statement, the ministry has also requested the parents to contact schools and send their children aged 12 to 17 years for vaccination on the specified day as there is a programme to vaccinate students in coordination with local governments during the vacation.
The Ministry has directed the schools to follow Learning Facilitation Guideline 2077 to connect the students with learning from alternative way even in the vacation.

At the same time, the government has asked the schools to make arrangements to conduct the pre-determined semester and annual examination programmes of universities in full compliance with public health and safety standards.
Likewise, the ministry has directed the schools not to conduct any function of parents’ day, annual day and other public programmes at educational institutions.

Similarly, the ministry has made vaccine certificate mandatory while entering academic institutions after January 21.
Meanwhile, the ministry decided to celebrate this year National Yoga Day on January 15 with a slogan “Yoga for All Round Development” through virtual programmes.