HCMC doesn't regulate students to have negative certificates to return to schools
On the morning of January 7, more than 200 managers from the Education and Training Departments of the district, Thu Duc City, leaders of high schools and non-public facilities in Ho Chi Minh City participated in a briefing to deploy activities related to the prevention and control of the Covid-19 epidemic in schools.
According to Trinh Duy Trong, Head of the Department of Politics and Thought under the Department of Education and Training in HCMC, after four pilot weeks of direct teaching for students in grades 9 and 12 and one week of on-campus learning for grades 7, 8, 10 and 11, the percentage of students going to school in districts is over 90 percent, in some places even reaching to 98-99 percent.
He said that the rate of students going to school increased due to the implementation of plans to ensure safety against the Covid-19 pandemic by educational institutions. Moreover, the sector has increased information amongst parents based on the previous three pilot weeks of direct teaching.
Trinh Duy Trong said, last week, seventh, eighth, ten, and eleventh graders came back to schools for direct learning, the number of students and teachers infected with Covid-19 at schools did not increase compared to the time when ninth and twelfth graders returned to schools in-person.
According to him, schools are continuing to follow the guidance of the Inter-Department of Health and the Department of Education and Training until new instructions will be issued.
In the context that the new variant has been reported in Ho Chi Minh City and some other provinces and cities across the country, the work pressure on medical facilities has increased, leading to ineffective collaboration between the two sectors of education and health. Therefore, schools need to actively coordinate with the medical station or center in the locality to have the best support for students.
Simultaneously, the Epidemic Prevention Steering Committee in districts ought to accelerate the booster vaccination for officials and teachers and the first and second doses for students.
Head of Secondary Education Department Le Duy Tan affirmed that although schools in Ho Chi Minh City have been providing direct teaching for students in grades 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12, middle and high schools still clearly define combining two forms of online and face-to-face teaching from now until the end of the school year.
Deputy Director of the City Department of Education and Training Duong Tri Dung informed that the Department of Education and Training will continue to work with the Department of Health over the plans to bring more students at all grades including preschoolers, primary students, and sixth graders after the Lunar New Year in 2022.
The Deputy Director of the City Department of Education and Training affirmed that although the number of cases detected in schools last week tended to decrease, schools should not relax their alert to the pandemic. Instead, schools need to raise their vigilance against new strains and study various forms of learning activities for students; for instance, learning in small groups to facilitate control.
