Ankara: Students of five more grades returned to school under tight measures as Turkey strives to keep schools open in a bid to improve education amid the coronavirus outbreak.
A few weeks after kindergartners and first-graders started in-person classes, second, third, fourth, eighth and 12th graders were back to school. It is part of a government scheme that is based on a trial and error basis on coronavirus trends.
In parallel with the improvement in the situation, authorities have been gradually rolling out new in-person education programs. Like other grades which started earlier, new grades will attend classes only two days a week while they will attend live online classes for the rest of the week.
The two days a week scheme allows for reducing the number of students per classroom. Every classroom will have half of its original capacity only, with a group of students going to school on Monday and Tuesday and others attending on Thursday and Friday. Every student is seated alone at their desks.
Students are also mandated to wear masks at all times. On Monday, some schools distributed free masks to students who showed up without one. Parents who accompany their children to school were banned from entering the courtyard as part of measures. Students and teachers are required to use hand sanitizers before entering the school premises and classrooms. Every class will last for 30 minutes with 10-minute breaks in between.
In the meantime, school hours for kindergartners increased starting Monday. Now, they will attend school for five days as they used to do before the pandemic. Attendance for all grades is not mandatory but students are required to attend online live classes if they skip school. “We are a bit scared because of the virus but my son would not have a proper education if the school was not opened,” Melek Duruşman, mother of a student who attends a primary school in Istanbul, told Demirören News Agency (DHA).
“I was hesitant at first. He was having live classes anyway. But he is so happy to be back at school.–Agencies
