ECE to Year 7 students to return to school from 7th February

Following confirmation that Early Childhood Education to Year 7 students will return to face to face to classes from Monday 7th February, Minister for Education Premila Kumar says parents of these students have been requesting for the opening of schools for their children.

Kumar says this decision was taken after a lot of consideration and taking into account evidence, discussions as well as clearance from the Ministry of Health.

She says the Ministry has been following student attendance for Years 8 to 13 since schools resumed a week ago.

Kumar says as the week progressed, relatively high rate of student attendance was seen ranging from an overall average of 63% to 75%.

The Minister says there is less COVID related absenteeism in teachers and teacher attendance remains high which is reassuring.

Kumar says these figures are giving the Ministry reassurance that all the preparation undertaken by the schools is working as anticipated, and teachers and students’ health can be well managed in schools.

She says in many countries children are more likely to catch COVID-19 in the community than in schools and it is no different for Fiji.

Kumar adds the the recent announcement made by the Ministry of Health reveals that there is a reduction in COVID cases and Fiji has been through the worst phase of the third wave.

She says according to the Ministry of Health, UNICEF and WHO, children are at a lower risk of severe illness and this is even more applicable to our young children who are at a lower risk. Kumar says the need for all children to get back to school and for us to navigate a safe path back to ensuring a brighter future for our children needs to start now.

She says the reopening of schools is based on multiple layers of protection in the schools with adherence to COVID-19 safe conditions.

The Minister has also revealed that all schools that were used as evacuation centres over the past few weeks have been decontaminated and cleared.

She says as an additional layer of support and reassurance, the Ministry of Health are carried out another round of decontamination in these schools.

Kumar says she hopes this will give further assurance to parents that schools are well prepared to receive children.