Grades 10, 11, 12 students to return to face-to-face teaching this month

Students in Grades 10, 11, and 12 will return to face-to-face schooling this month. This announcement was made by the Education Ministry on Thursday.
According to the Ministry, there will not be one fixed date for the reopening of all secondary schools, since it is being done according to the vaccination programme.
“The advice received from the Ministry of Health is that those students who were vaccinated should be given the time to be fully inoculated before entering the school environment. Since students of the various secondary schools received their first and second doses of the Pfizer vaccine on different dates, their reopening dates will also differ,” the Ministry said in a statement.
It added that for an adolescent to be deemed fully vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine they must receive two doses (21-28 days apart) with an additional 10 days after the second dose to be fully protected. This would mean that the different secondary schools would return to face-to-face instruction on different dates.
The Ministry said that each secondary school would be informed of their respective reopening date, adding that the Health Ministry has also advised that only students of these three grades at the secondary level should be allowed back into school for face-to-face learning.
“Grades 7 to 9 will not be reopened physically at this time. As it relates to the other levels, the plans that were previously announced stand without variation. Schools will be reopened based on the individualised programme established by the respective schools to facilitate face-to-face engagement,” the statement read.
In September, the Ministry announced that secondary schools would re-open based on the rollout of the vaccination programme for adolescents aged 12 to 17.
It also warned that all COVID-19 protocols such as wearing masks, washing or sanitising hands and social distancing must be observed.
“It must be noted that children who are not vaccinated will not be prevented from entering their school for instruction. However, we encourage as many parents as possible to consent for their children aged 12 to 17 to receive the vaccine, which will serve to protect them from the effects of COVID-19. We also encourage our parents and teachers who have not yet been vaccinated to get vaccinated so that we can protect each other,” the Ministry said.