Education Ministry announces health, safety instructions for schools

AMMAN — The Ministry of Education has announced instructions for schools regarding wearing face masks and implementing other precautionary measures as the new school year approaches.

The instructions stressed the need to “seriously consider the current epidemiological situation while considering the increase in numbers of the local virus cases when applying precautionary measures and committing to them”.

When listing the instructions for physical distancing and the necessity of wearing masks, the ministry “especially addressed students and teachers who suffer from chronic diseases that lead to immune deficiency, such as chronic lung diseases, obesity, diabetes and cancer”.

The ministry asked those with the mentioned health problems to choose distance learning as an alternative to attending school.

The ministry also stressed the need to refrain from sending children to school of those who suffer from high temperature, general fatigue, sore throat or coughing.

When it comes to transportation, the ministry asked schools to increase the number of buses or increase the number of trips that the buses carry out so that the seating arrangements would go in accordance with physical distancing health measures. 

According to the instructions, the school bus driver is required to continuously ventilate the bus by opening windows.

Children under the age of five are not required to wear a mask as they are “unable to understand the importance of the mask and will not be able to wear it correctly”.

As an alternative, several start-ups and health-related companies are offering parents alternatives to masks for that age group, such as cartoon-shaped face masks or colourful face shields.

Meanwhile, doctors and teachers are both sceptical of these alternatives.

“For one, anything that has not been produced by a legitimate and licensed health factory is questionable. We as doctors cannot recommend these masks as we do not know the specifications of their production or their effectiveness,” said Respiratory Specialist Doctor Taha Hudhud.

Hudhud added: “Face shields in particular could be a cause for concern as they might cause shortness of breath in the child’s developmental stage, so I would instead recommend enforcing physical distancing measures for the children.”

Teachers such as Muna Khalil, a 13-year veteran teaching kindergarten children, said that neither face masks nor face shields would be an option for children.

“To get a child to wear something as uncomfortable as a mask for a whole day when you cannot explain its significance to them is very challenging. Physical distancing, on the other hand, can be better done,” she told The Jordan Times.

Khalil said that inventing games for children can help in keeping a safe distance from each other, such as “if you touch another child you lose, if you do not touch anyone for a whole day you get a star”, or any other game that appeals to them.

Students over the age of 12 are required to abide by the same rules that citizens abide by under the defence orders, with the possibility of removing the mask temporarily during the lesson if there is a safe distance of more than one metre.