Students raise their hands during a class on the first day of the new school year in the West Bank city of Nablus, Aug. 16, 2021. More than a million students in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip have returned on Monday to their schools after several months of school closure due to the spread of the coronavirus. (Photo by Ayman Nobani/Xinhua)
RAMALLAH/GAZA, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- More than a million students in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip have returned on Monday to their schools after several months of school closure due to the spread of the coronavirus.
About 1.2 million students, as well as 71,000 teachers, rushed to the schools across the West Bank and the coastal enclave. Some of the schools belong to the government or the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), while others are private educational institutions.
"Students went back to schools a month earlier than planned to make up for the gaps that the past year has created," Basri Saleh, deputy minister of education, told Xinhua.
He added that the current academic year will be divided into four semesters, instead of two, for fear of any emergency that can occur because of the pandemic.
On Sunday, Marwan Awartani, Palestinian Minister of Education, said in a press conference held in Ramallah that the teaching staff "will not be able to enter schools" unless they are fully vaccinated.
He confirmed that the Palestinian educational system is ready to receive students by providing a decent and safe space for each one of them.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health has also announced that 82 percent of its school staff in the West Bank had received vaccines. Efforts are currently underway to vaccinate those who have not done so.
The ministry stressed that school staff across the West Bank are required to wear face masks at all times, whether it is inside classrooms or in the open area. It has also obliged students from 11 to 16 years old to do the same and demanded that any visitor, who plans to attend schools, should be able to present a vaccination certificate.
It also called for adherence to safety and prevention measures through social distancing, personal hygiene, and sterilization and the ventilation of classrooms. This is in addition to the plan to vaccinate everyone from 10 to 16 years old.
In Gaza, the Hamas-run Ministry of Education said in a press statement that the studies will be done as they were before the coronavirus crisis. They will continue for six days a week, with all preventive measures taken and adherence to the health protocol.
The statement said that the ministry will conduct a continuous assessment of the health status during the school year in coordination with the Hamas-run Ministry of Health and will take appropriate measures to ensure the safety of students and staff.
"The ministry will adopt an integrated educational, academic, and psychological plan aimed at integrating students into the educational process in a sound scientific manner, especially after periods of school dropout due to the new virus," the statement explained.
Farid Abu Azra, the head of the UNRWA Education Program in Gaza, told Xinhua that the UN agency has established all necessary school facilities to start this academic year smoothly.
Abu Azra added that UNRWA worked to prepare particular health protocols for full face-to-face learning, coinciding with an extensive campaign to encourage education staff to take the widely available vaccines.
He explained that the UN agency provided the necessary health, sterilization, and cleaning materials and distributed them to its schools across the Gaza Strip.
Earlier in the day, the Palestinian health ministry recorded 620 new coronavirus cases, raising the total number of infections to 350,106 cases, including 4,144 active cases.
In addition, the ministry reported one fatality from the virus, bringing the total number of deaths to 3,893. Enditem
