ULAN BATOR, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- The new 2021-2022 academic year for all kindergartens and general educational schools across Mongolia started on Wednesday amid a resurgence of COVID-19 and a growing Delta variant threat.
No official ceremonies were held across the country for the academic year due to the pandemic.
General educational schools in areas classified as high-risk for COVID-19 will rotate classroom training and TV or online classes on a weekly basis, and no more than 25 students are allowed in each classroom at all school levels, according to the country's Ministry of Education and Science.
Children who wear face masks, have their temperature checked and sanitize their hands, are allowed to enter the classroom.
"Due to the global COVID-19 outbreak, our teachers and students had been away from their classrooms for almost two years. Now, we all need to pay special attention to the implementation of a comprehensive plan to eliminate the scholastic backwardness throughout the country," Mongolian President Ukhnaa Khurelsukh said in a written message, welcoming teachers and children back to school.
Roughly 81,000 children across the country are entering the first grade.
"I am so excited to enter the school and meet new friends. I want the coronavirus to be suppressed quickly and all to be healthy," Bilguun Uulensolongo, a first-grader in a school in the capital Ulan Bator, told Xinhua.
Over the past two years, Mongolian educational institutions have conducted more than 30 percent of their classes in classrooms due to the pandemic, said the ministry.
The resurgence of COVID-19 has continued and the highly contagious Delta variant of the virus is spreading fast across the country. Delta has been detected in the capital and most of the country's 21 provinces.
Mongolia, with a population of 3.3 million people, has so far recorded 217,546 COVID-19 cases, with 944 deaths.
The Asian country on Wednesday confirmed 3,726 new cases in the last 24 hours, marking the highest daily spike and exceeding 3,000 cases a day for the first time since the pandemic hit the country in March 2020.
So far, 64.4 percent of the country's population has been fully vaccinated against the virus. There are more than 290,000 children aged 12 to 17 in the country, and 75 percent of them have been fully vaccinated. Enditem
