Education Ministry ‘assessing four scenarios’ to reopen schools during outbreak

ANKARA

The Education Ministry’s primary aim is to fully open schools in the new academic year, but is assessing four different scenarios depending on the course of the COVID-19 outbreak in late August, Education Minister Ziya Selçuk said on July 30.

“As the Education Ministry, our duty is to open and keep schools open. We continue our preparations for the opening of schools to the smallest detail. Here, our first scenario is that schools will fully open and all students will go to school,” the minister told Demirören News Agency.

The preparations are made in cooperation with the other ministries and is examining other models in the world as well, Selçuk said.

“What should be in classrooms? How should the corridors be arranged? How will recess times be set? What should be considered in the teachers’ room, what should be done in hostel schools? We will work on all these individually. And as a result of these studies, we also prepare a wide variety of guides and handbooks for our parents, teachers and school administrators,” he stated.

In another scenario, face-to-face education and distance education are planned to be carried out together, Selçuk said. “Let’s say the circumstances required so, can we open part-time? So, in the second scenario, we talk about taking both distance and face-to-face education together,” he stated.

The third scenario is to open schools on a city basis, the minister said.

“If schools are opened according to cities, how are the compensation programs of other cities set up, how are teacher trainings studied?” Selçuk said about the preparations for the third scenario.

The fourth scenario is for the worst course of the outbreak that is full distance education, according to the minister.

“Here, if we are talking about the first scenario of opening schools fully and all students attending schools, the second part about the part-time opening, and the third scenario with opening based on city, the fourth scenario may be the scenario of not opening schools, continuing the process with full distance education,” he stated.