By Manjima Dhakal
Kathmandu, July 12: The government is planning to reopen schools in low-risk zones of the country after many stakeholders demanded to run schools mainly in high hill areas.
The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MOEST) has started its exercise to reopen schools at low-risk districts, mainly in mountains and hills, after local governments and other stakeholders of some districts assured that they could reopen schools safely.
Minister for Education, Science and Technology, Giriraj Mani Pokharel is in consultation with stakeholders regarding this. He is planning to submit a proposal for reopening schools in some districts at COVID-19 Crisis Management Centre (CCMC) for approval, Puran KC, personal secretary of the Minister Pokharel, informed.
Therefore, the ministry has formed a committee under the coordination of Deepak Sharma, spokesperson of the MOEST, to prepare a proposal to submit at CCMC. The schools in some districts will open soon after the ministry’s proposal is approved from the CCMC.
The government is in a mood to open schools at such low-risk areas where alternative modes of education could not be effective due to geographical difficulty.
The MOEST is also in a mood to run classes at such areas where teachers and students are staying in the same locality. Likewise, the ministry also said students would get learning opportunity from schools because guardians could not hold children only at homes.
Tulsi Thapaliya, director general of Centre for Education Human Resource Development (CEHRD) under MOEST, said the ministry had started its plan to reopen schools after many local governments and even teachers demanded to open schools with assurance to run classes following safety measures.
Thapaliya said that the “Students Learning Facilitation Directives, 2077” asked with schools to manage learning opportunity even to those children who don’t have any access to technology to attend classes. For that, the directives suggested forming small groups of students in community and facilitate by locally available teachers. However, schools and local governments are stating that reopening schools with safety measures in low-risk zones is more practical than gathering students in the community, Thapaliya said.
As the ministry is planning to reopen schools it has also asked local governments for alternative management of quarantines which are set up at schools in many districts. About 4500 schools across the country have been converted as quarantines.
Meanwhile, the ministry has conducted discussions with joint secretaries of all seven provinces regarding the impact of alternative modes of education that are ongoing from June 15.
In the discussion, joint secretaries also suggested it would be better to reopen schools in high hill districts, KC informed.
Schools across the country were closed from March 18 after the government announced so with the risk of COVID-19 spread.