In-class education to continue uninterrupted: Minister

KONYA

The COVID-19 pandemic’s impact has been very limited on schools, with in-person education having been suspended only in a few classrooms, Education Minister Mahmut Özer has said.

Some 18 million students and more than 1 million teachers returned from a two-week mid-term holiday at the start of the week. Schools in Turkey resume in-class education in early September 2021 after an 18-month break due to the pandemic.

“Face-to-face education will continue in the second semester by taking all necessary measures recommended by the Health Ministry and the Health Ministry’s Science Board,” Özer told reporters on Feb. 7 in the Central Anatolian province of Konya.

The minister noted that Turkey has a large education system with more than 71,000 schools, which have a total of 850,000 classrooms.

“The Omicron variant [of the coronavirus] is spreading fast, but its impact on schools has been limited. As of today, face-to-face education has been suspended only in 50 classrooms,” Özer said.

The public in general should adhere to the anti-virus rules to keep schools open, the minister added.

Last week, Özer said that closing schools would not be a “solution.”

“All nations across the world are struggling to keep schools open and we are taking all measures possible. The past five months were difficult both for teachers and students…it is hard for students to sit in classrooms with face masks on, but we managed the process well,” he said in an interview.

“We are determined and education will continue in the second semester,” Özer said, adding that the vaccination rate among teachers are very high, with 94 percent of them having received at least one dose of the COVID-19 shot.