Mozambique: Ministry says 90% of secondary schools fit to resume classes

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Mozambique: Ministry says 90% of secondary schools fit to resume classes

8:25 CAT | 20 Oct 2020

Photo: Miramar

The Mozambican Education Ministry claimed on Monday that about 90 per cent of the country’s secondary schools are fit to resume face-to-face teaching.

Classes should have resumed in the 12th (pre-university) grade on 1 October, and on Monday, 19 October, 10th grade classes are scheduled to restart, more than six months after all schools were closed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Ministry of Education spokesperson, Gina Guibunda, told AIM that money from the government’s “Direct Support to Schools” fund, and contributions from the communities raised by the School Councils have allowed most secondary schools to re-open.

“By 30 September we had 71 per cent of the schools functioning”, she said. “Today we can say that we are near 90 per cent”.

Re-opening schools depends on a health assessment. Schools should only resume face-to-face teaching if they can implement basic Covid-19 preventive measures, such as social distancing and frequent hand washing. Schools cannot re-open, if they do not have a reliable source of water and decent sanitation.

The number of schools formally assessed is growing week by week, said Guibunda, and schools “are now meeting the conditions demanded for a safe return to face-to-face teaching, thanks to the intervention of the community, represented by the School Councils”.

But schools are clearly unable to reopen in those parts of the northern province of Cabo Delgado under attack from islamist terrorists. Over 250,000 people have fled their homes.

Guibunda said that education is being provided for these displaced people. “In the places to which the people have fled, the district directors of education are present, and they have instructions to receive all the pupils”, she claimed. “Rather more than 170,000 pupils have been covered so far”.

Source: AIM