Covid-19: CIP calls on government to consider cancelling 2020 school year

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Covid-19: CIP calls on government to consider cancelling 2020 school year

2:57 CAT | 21 Jul 2020

File photo: O País

The non-governmental organisation Centre for Public Integrity [Centro de Integridade Pública-CIP] suggested on Monday that the government should consider cancelling the school year to ensure that conditions are created for the safe reopening of schools.

“The Government should evaluate a possible cancellation of the 2020 school year, so that the second semester can be used to make improvements for a safer return in 2021,″ a note from the organisation reads.

Earlier this month, the Mozambican government announced that it would spend 3.5 billion meticais on the reorganisation of schools for their phased reopening, in response to the risks presented by Covid-19.

“This amount will be spent on the rehabilitation and replacement of water supply and sanitation systems in schools, boarding schools and training centres,” Minister of Public Works, Housing and Water Resources, João Machatine, announced after a Council of Ministers session in Maputo.

The CIP suggests the government draw up a detailed plan for deeper interventions in schools, warning that the current structure of the education system does not guarantee that the rehabilitation and replacement of water and sanitation infrastructures alone are sufficient to prevent mass contamination.

“The CIP is of the opinion that there is a need to return to face-to-face classes and normal life, but this return should not be at the expense of the greatest value that a human being can have – life,” the NGO urges.

The reopening of schools, which have, under the state of emergency, been closed since April 1, was scheduled for July 27, but Mozambican head of state Filipe Nyusi backtracked last week, saying that schools in the country will would closed until hygienic conditions were assured.

Mozambique’s public education system has a total of 13,337 primary and 677 secondary schools, according to official data.

Since the announcement of the first case of Covid-19 in Mozambique on March 22, the country has had a total of 1,507 infections, with 11 deaths and 505 recoveries, as per the Ministry of Health Monday (July 20) report..

The Covid-19 pandemic has already claimed more than 601,000 lives and infected more than 14.3 million people in 196 countries and territories, according to a report by the French AFP press agency.

The disease is transmitted by a new coronavirus detected in late December in Wuhan, a city in central China.

Source: Lusa