Education Ministry monitoring COVID-19 situation before deciding to reopen schools

Education Ministry monitoring COVID-19 situation before deciding to reopen schools

The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MoEYS) has said that it will continue to closely monitor the COVID-19 situation in the country as well as in the region and the world before making a decision on when schools, colleges and universities can resume and classes can restart.

The comment was made by Moeys in remarks made to Agence Kampuchea Presse (AKP) this morning by Dr Khamboli, Spokesperson of MoEYS.

The ministry added that if is also discussing the matter with the Ministry of Health (MoH) and waiting for further instructions from the Royal Government, he added.

In the meantime, the spokesperson stressed that, MoEYS has called on education staff, parents, guardians and students to continue following the directives and press releases issued by the Royal Government, the MoEYs as well as the MoH and paying attention to hygiene measures.

MoEYS also encouraged students to do their best in their auto-learning through distance learning and e-learning on the ministry’s websites and pages and TV channels, especially TVK2, he underlined.

Dr. Or Vandine, MoH’s Secretary of State and Spokesperson has confirmed that all measures taken by the Royal Government, MoH and other relevant ministries and institutions are still in effect even though zero new cases have been found during the last 13 days.

“We’ve not loosen our hands yet, although some of our citizens seem to resume their daily life. All preventive measures are still in force,” she said. “The situation in our country is very fragile despite no new case of COVID-19 being detected in the past 13 days, and the recovery cases have been increasing.

If we look at some of our neighbouring countries and the rest of the world, their situation is still critical. Therefore, if we loosen our hands, Cambodia would be re-exposed to [COVID-19]. Remember that we can forget COVID-19, but COVID-19 will never forget us.”

Dr. Ly Sovann, Director of the Communicable Disease Control Department (CDC) and a Spokesperson at MoH shared the same views as Dr. Or Vandine, reiterating that all citizens should not be complacent.

“Regarding the lifting of bans or easing of restrictions, it is up to the decision of the Royal Government, but the specialised bodies remain vigilant and keep urging people to continue to apply the preventive measures,” he said. C. Nika/AKP

Credited: Khmer Times