Jordan News

The National Back-to-School Campaign “Towards a Safe Return to Our Schools” expressed its appreciation for the efforts of the Ministries of Education and Health in taking the necessary measures to ensure a return to face-to-face education, and the assurances of the officials of both ministries that face-to-face education will continue and not return to it.
At a time when the campaign praised the efforts to provide the vaccine and set procedures to ensure safety for all students, it called for a review of the health protocol and procedures for applying rotation and blended education.
The campaign said, “It is unfair for students in overcrowded public schools to bear the mistakes of successive governments by not providing an appropriate school environment and not providing buildings and capabilities to solve the problem of overcrowding, an old problem that was exacerbated by Corona.”
The campaign was surprised to resort to the easier decision to implement electronic blended education instead of finding radical solutions such as expanding schools and increasing classrooms, especially since education is a constitutional right for all, and therefore it cannot be compromised by giving “half education” or distance education.
The campaign referred to the statements of representatives of private schools about suspending or closing the work of some of them, calling on the government to study the possibility of benefiting from these buildings and renting them to solve the problem of overcrowding in parallel with the implementation of the two-shift system.
The campaign also expressed its reservations about what was recently announced, specifically regarding the closure of the classroom for a period of two weeks in the event of injuries.
The campaign indicated in a press statement issued by it today that the protocol included the closure of the school in the event that the percentage of injuries reached 10%, pointing out that the global protocols emphasized the need for decentralization when taking the decision to close schools, as some schools have separate buildings according to age groups and the tendency to close as an option Finally, if the epidemiological situation in the community calls for this procedure.
The campaign was surprised not to resort to determining the percentage of injuries that require closure in the rest of the sectors; This procedure does not apply to any of the sectors.
The campaign also drew attention to the decision related to class closures, considering that the transition to “distance learning” for a period of 14 days for the entire class will contribute to creating a state of instability for students with continued interruptions from education, as the previous protocol of the Ministry and international protocols confirm the trend to limit contacts from The first or second degree only during the 24-48 hours preceding the discovery of the infection and going to a PCR examination and isolation in cases where the infection is confirmed only; While in the event of exposure to an infected person by a person who received the vaccine, the health protocol does not require quarantine or a PCR examination unless symptoms appear.
The campaign stresses that any measures that may hinder the return of full and continuous face-to-face education will exacerbate the crisis of lack of confidence between the citizen and the government regarding the seriousness of returning to face-to-face education, in addition to increasing the negative repercussions of continuing interruptions in equal face-to-face education and the reluctance of parents to enroll their children in schools
The campaign stresses its demands to conduct a full and serious evaluation of all students without exception, assess the degree of academic and psychological educational loss, emphasize plans to compensate for it in all regions and all levels of study without exception, emphasize putting the education file on the priority list with all decisions and resort to coordinating matters with parents Schools and medical professionals to come up with a clear common vision and strategy and agree on an applicable scientific protocol
The campaign reminds that closing schools at the beginning of the pandemic was to protect the elderly as much as possible, as it has not been scientifically proven and definitely that closing them contributes to limiting the spread of the virus, and with vaccines currently available to protect them and receiving the majority of the vaccinated education staff, children should not bear the burden of the elderly’s failure in their health More than half of them abstained from receiving the vaccine, despite its availability.
The campaign stresses the need to live with the epidemic, which has become necessary to avoid further losses.