Parents prepare for new school year amid pandemic

AMMAN — As the new school year approaches, parents have started looking for schools for their children, despite uncertainty amid the pandemic.

In a statement published on Thursday, the Ministry of Education called on parents to share information about back-to-school safety measures with their children. 

The statement said that “more than 83 per cent of the Kingdom’s educators and school workers got vaccinated”. 

All school administrators and teaching staff who did not get vaccinated or missed their second-dose vaccine appointments must present a negative PCR test that is valid for 72 hours on Sunday and Thursday mornings each week.

If the employees in schools, both public and private, refuse to follow the previously mentioned measures, they will not be allowed to go to work. The days they miss are deducted from their annual leave. If all the annual leave is exhausted, the days are deducted from their salaries, according to the Prime Ministry. 

Hala Husni, a mother of a nine-year-old, told The Jordan Times on Thursday that next week her daughter will start going to school. 

She added that the reason her daughter is starting early is  to undertake courses as part of the Academic Loss Compensation Programme, which aims to compensate students for the lessons they missed during the pandemic. Husni said her daughter will undertake courses for English, Arabic, mathematics and science subjects as part of the programme.

“We are very excited to have our daughter back in school soon, but we are for sure expecting that safety precautions and procedures will be enhanced amid the global health crisis,” Hala said. 

Nada Omar, a mother of two, expressed hope that her son’s school would “take good care of the health and safety of its students”. 

“Children’s school experience supports their development and strengthens their personalities,” she told The Jordan Times.