JUBA, Oct. 5 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan on Monday partially reopened schools after six months of lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Minister for general education Awut Deng Achuil, said about 110,000 final year students will be allowed to attend classes across the country during phase one of the school reopening calendar.
Achuil said the decision was taken to enable candidate students to complete their studies amid reduction in the number of COVID-19 cases in the east African country.
"Reopening of schools in phases is a difficult thing at this moment, but we have no choice," Achuil said.
She added that learning for non-candidate classes in kindergarten, primary and secondary schools will reopen in April 2021.
"Phase two will begin in April 2021, but we will continue with the distance learning program through radio," she added.
Vice President for Service Cluster and head of the country's COVID-19 taskforce, Hussein Abdelbagi Akol said schools will be required to follow strict COVID-19 preventive measures as learners return to classes.
South Sudan has confirmed 2,734 COVID-19 positive cases with 2,560 recoveries and 50 deaths as of Monday. Enditem
