Schools gradually welcome students back to classrooms

AMMAN — The Kingdom’s schools on Sunday started receiving the first batch of students for the 2020/2021 second semester, according to a plan prepared by the Education Ministry and a health protocol that was approved in cooperation with the Health Ministry. 

The first stage of the plan includes students of kindergartens, the first three grades and Tawjihi (the General Secondary Education Certificate Examination), where the ministry estimated the number of returning students at 773,812, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Schools on Sunday received students of kindergartens, first grade and Tawjihi, while second graders are scheduled to return to school on Monday and third graders on Tuesday.

The Education Ministry had announced earlier that the plan, according to the health protocol, requires providing two square metres of space for each student.

Schools that cannot provide such a distance will have to adopt a hybrid pattern of distance education and in-class education in rotation, where parents choose schooldays for their children. 

According to the plan, the second stage of resuming in-class education is scheduled to start on February 21 with receiving 10th and 11th graders, followed by a third stage involving attendance of students from the fourth to ninth grades as of March 7. 

Kindergarten, first grade and Tawjihi students’ attendance in public schools on the first day of the second semester, on Sunday, reached 49 per cent, according to Secretary General of the Ministry of Education Najwa Qubeilat.

First grade students recorded the highest attendance rate at 63 per cent, while the lowest attendance rate was registered among Tawjihi students at 37 per cent, Petra reported.