Kathmandu, November 18
The government of Nepal has authorised concerned local governments to decide whether to open schools in their jurisdictions amidst the risk of Covid-19 outbreak spread.
Schools across the country are closed since March. Some schools have launched online classes to make up the loss, but many believe such classes are not effective enough and accessible to all students and guardians.
In this context, a cabinet meeting recently endorsed the modality on operating schools in the context of Covid-19. Now onwards, local governments can decide to open schools considering the level of threats in their area, according to the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology.
However, the schools should get sanitised before they conduct regular classes. Many schools had been converted into quarantine and/or isolation centres for the people at the risk of infection and the infected ones in the past months.
The local units can choose an appropriate option among various modalities of school operation. They can let the school teach different grades at different times of a day or on different days of a week. Likewise, they can also choose to reduce the duration of classes in a day or a week.
Likewise, the schools are authorised to conduct examinations by maintaining sufficient protection measures against the virus infection. Accordingly, the National Examination Board is preparing to conduct the grade 12 final examinations across the country from next week.
