As part of the preventive and precautionary measures aimed at
maintaining safety of students and in line with the efforts made to contain the
spread of coronavirus, COVID-19, the Ministry of Education has announced a
four-week closure of all public and private schools and higher education
institutions across the UAE, starting Sunday.
In a statement released today, the Ministry said the decision
comes as a proactive step that is consistent with the developments in the field
of mitigating impacts of crises and natural disaster and out of keenness to
provide highest standards of safety within the school and higher education
communities.
According to the decision, the spring vacation, initially
scheduled to start on 29th March to 12th April, will instead start next Sunday.
A pilot programme for distance education will be implemented during the last
weeks of the vacation to ensure education continuity and to avoid any impact on
school days.
The Ministry said the decision takes into consideration the
interests of students and ensures that the distance education initiative is
properly applied.
The decision grants the private schools and higher education
institutions the freedom to apply the procedures they see necessary to
guarantee education continuity.
The Ministry will utilise the vacation to conduct massive
operations to sterilise school and university facilities and buses, in
accordance with the international standards for health, safety and hygiene.
On Monday, the Ministry launched a pilot stage of distance
learning initiative through its website for all government schools nationwide.
The self-learning was part of the ministry's plans to continue
the learning process during times of natural crises and disasters, said the
ministry in a statement.
The ministry directed school administrations to launch an
awareness campaign on distance education for all targeted groups, including
parents, students, teachers and administrators. The campaign should elaborate
on the tasks assigned to each category, and to direct those concerned to access
the ministry's training platform to see how to implement interactive lessons
for distance education, and to ensure availability of electronic devices while
finding alternative solutions in cooperation with parents.
It also called on parents to create an appropriate learning
environment at home by providing internet services, other distance education
resources like computers, tablets, and smartphones. Parents are also advised to
encourage students to practice distance learning as per the subject and time
schedule approved by their schools.
Students are also obliged to commit themselves to the public
policy of using learning devices during the distance education process, during
which other distracting activities like photography and web-browsing should be
prohibited.
The ministry urged both teachers and students to seek technical
support if they face any difficulties or challenges by contacting 7017000-06 or
by visiting Sd@moe.gov.ae "Implementation of this system is prioritised by
the ministry to provide an interactive e-platform for distance education for
all and to overcome time and geographical barriers, harness educational
potential and advanced technologies to ease student stress," it added.
04/03/2020
