South Sudan: Schools reopen after 14 months

By Benjamin Takpiny

JUBA, South Sudan (AA) – The South Sudan government on Monday reopened all schools after 14 months of closure due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The reopening of schools in South Sudan followed an assessment done by the Education Ministry in partnership with education and health partners to ascertain their readiness.

South Sudanese vice president and chairperson for National Task Force on COVID-19, Hussein Abdelbagi Akol, said the reopening of schools came after the COVID-19 cases went down up to 3%.

“COVID-19 is still with us but we have decided to reopen schools and will strictly follow the COVID-19 preventative measures in the schools,” Akol said, marking the reopening of schools on Monday.

He ordered all the school administrators and head teachers to operate at half capacity to protect students from COVID-19.

Meanwhile, Education Minister Awut Deng Achuil called upon parents and guardians to register their children, including children with disabilities, in schools of their choice.

“I strongly encourage parents to make sure their children are enrolled and ready for the new academic year.”

She revealed that to support the return of teachers to schools the EU has committed to support payment of teachers’ incentives for the first three months after the reopening.

The schools were shut down in April 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In the last 24 hours, South Sudan registered only four new COVID-19 cases, taking the country’s tally to 10,602 since April 5 last year, when the first case was registered. The number of deaths remained at 115.