Nghe An has a plan to prepare enough classrooms before the first day of school.

Return facilities to schools

District People's CommitteeKy Sonhas just issued a document on returning facilities to school units to prepare for the school opening. Accordingly, to ensure that students return to school as planned from the beginning of September, the People's Committee of Ky Son district has requested the Chairmen of the People's Committees of 21 communes and towns to proactively rearrange centralized quarantine areas at other locations such as medical stations, village cultural houses, community houses, and school sites that schools are not using.

Previously, through synthesis, the whole district had 47 schools, mainly primary and secondary schools being requisitioned for use as hospitals.centralized quarantine areafor Ky Son workers returning from work in the southern provinces or some cases are F1 subjects, related to Covid-19 patients in the area.

The fact that schools are being used as quarantine areas makes preparations difficult.new school yearSchools are facing many difficulties and if there is no alternative plan soon, students in the area will not have schools for the new school year.

Quarantine point at Chieu Luu 2 Primary School. Photo: PV

Discussing further on this issue, Mr. Phan Van Thiet - Head of the Department of Education and Training of Ky Son district said: The peculiarity of Ky Son is that primary and secondary schools are semi-boarding schools, so most communes and towns use schools as quarantine areas, of which 18/19 secondary schools use them. In the coming time, if the schools are not returned before the school year starts, it will greatly affect the students' learning and the implementation of the school year plan will be very difficult.

For now, in the context of this school year, we will not organize an early school opening but will gather before the opening day. The district also requires communes and towns to have a plan to find other quarantine locations to return the school quarantine areas before August 20, so that schools have time to clean, spray disinfectants, disinfect and prepare conditions for the new school year.

Que Phong district has also considered the option of moving the centralized quarantine areas in 15 schools in the area, including 8 secondary schools, to new locations to prepare for the new school year. However, the current difficulty is that in the area, besides schools, there are not many other locations that have the conditions to conduct centralized quarantine.

Quarantine point at Nam Can 1 Primary School (Ky Son). Photo: Thanh Cuong

In the immediate future, according to Mr. Lu Thanh Ha - Head of the District Education and Training Department: If the 14-day centralized quarantine period is completed, it will take at least until the end of August for the schools to return their facilities, which makes preparations for the new school year quite rushed, especially for boarding schools at the secondary level. Under current conditions, the district is considering the option of transferring quarantine areas from secondary schools to kindergartens, and if not on time, kindergarten students will return to school later than other levels to ensure good implementation of centralized quarantine in the area.

Depending on actual conditions to organize the new school year

Currently, through the synthesis ofDepartment of Education and TrainingThe whole province still has about 500 schools and 1 vocational education and training center being requisitioned as centralized quarantine areas. In the above context, the education sector has also directed localities to consider the actual situation to have appropriate arrangements. However, if the quarantine is prolonged, affecting the implementation of the new school year plan, other options can be considered such as requisitioning more cultural houses, headquarters or schools that are no longer in use to reduce the load, and gradually stop using schools as centralized quarantine areas to welcome students into the new school year.

Quarantine point at Hoa Thanh Kindergarten (Yen Thanh). Photo: MH

However, in practice, there are still shortcomings, because currently in many localities, the number of workers returning from epidemic areas continues to increase. In Yen Thanh district, through discussion with Mr. Tran Xuan Tinh - Head of the district's Department of Education and Training, the district currently has 52 schools requisitioned to serve as quarantine areas with 39 kindergartens, 8 primary schools and 5 secondary schools. However, getting the schools back to prepare for the new school year is very difficult.

Even transferring quarantine areas to kindergartens is not possible because some localities such as Lang Thanh, Ma Thanh, and Lien Thanh have requisitioned all kindergartens and have switched to quarantine at primary or secondary schools...

Quynh Lam B Primary School (Quynh Luu) cooks rice to support the department on duty and people quarantined at the school. Photo: MH

In the current context, Tuong Duong district is also prioritizing epidemic prevention as the first goal. Mr. Kha Van Lap - Head of the district's Department of Education and Training also said: In our area, only schools are convenient for centralized quarantine areas. Therefore, if 37 schools and school locations are not returned in time before the new school year, the district may have to return to school later than other localities.

Mr. Nguyen Trong Hoan - Chief of Office of the Department of Education and Training also said: The Department of Education and Training has submitted a plan for the new school year and developed a plan for the return to school and the opening day (waiting for approval from the Provincial People's Committee). This year, due to the complicated epidemic situation, if any locality has not yet controlled the epidemic or is implementing Directive 16, the school year may be implemented later. On the school side, a plan will be developed to organize teaching and learning for students in the new conditions.

Specifically, students from grade 3 and above can teach online. For the remaining levels, schools still assign homeroom teachers to organize review lessons for students in many forms with the motto of not going to school but not stopping learning. The opening ceremony is also expected to be organized simply, without large gatherings.