Face-to-face classes are likely to begin mid September, according to the Ministry of Education Youth and Information.

The education ministry made the disclosure in a release on Friday (August 27).

While the ministry says the fall school term will begin on September 6, 2021 students will not return to face to face classes until a feasibility assessment is conducted in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Wellness (MOHW) during the week of Sept 20, 2021.

As such classes on September 6 will be conducted via one or more of the three approved modalities which include: online/computer-aided learning, audio-visual (television and radio) and printed learning packages or kits.

“Our objective is to return early childhood/infant and primary school to the face-to-face mode as soon as we are able to. We advise households to be vaccinated in order to get our students 12 years and under back into the face-to-face mode as quickly as possible,” read the release from the ministry.

Secondary Schools

As for secondary schools, the ministry said that face to face classes would resume once 65 percent of the school population at an institution had been achieved.

The ministry said it would continue to provide access through one of the three modalities until the vaccination target had been achieved.  

“Students in secondary schools will therefore return to face-to-face once their school achieves 65% vaccination rate or higher. The modalities previously established will therefore continue until schools population data are assessed for the vaccination rate and permission given by the Ministry of Health and Wellness for face-to-face,” said the ministry in a release.

The ministry used the occasion to stress vaccination as one of the tools that would enable students to return to face to face classes, adding that other protocols like mask wearing and social distancing would be enforced.

As of August 27, 2021, approximately 28,000 students received the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine.