Wednesday 24 / April / 2024
Muscat: More than 60,000 teachers and academic administrators are set to return to school, with the new academic year beginning today.
Teachers, support staff, academic administrators and school supervisors will all oversee the start of the new academic year for 2021/2022, which begins Sunday, September 12.
They will need to make sure that the COVID-19 precautionary measures set up by the Ministry of Education, in cooperation with the Ministry of Health, are followed at all their schools.
Plenty of efforts are being taken by the concerned authorities to create a healthy and safe learning environment in schools, and to limit the spread of COVID-19.
There are expected to be 56,569 teachers in government schools this year, according to the Oman News Agency. 17,881 are males, and 38,688 are females.
There are also 10,878 administrators and technical staff at schools. The Omanisation rate for teaching staff stands at 84.8 per cent, while it is far higher (99.8 per cent) for admin and technical staff.
According to the annual yearbook released by the National Centre of Statistics and Information (NCSI), North Al Batinah had the highest percentage of government schools (17.6 per cent) in 2020/2021, followed by Muscat (14.9 per cent) and Dhofar (13.5 per cent).
There were 1,893 schools operating in Oman during this period, 153 fewer than the previous year. The 2020/2021 academic year also witnessed a drop in the number of private schools, which fell from 662 to 834.
62.4 per cent of schools in Oman – for 2020/2021 – were government schools, while 35 per cent were private.
Meanwhile, Indian schools in Oman have drawn up plans for students across different grades to return to classrooms in stages, instead of all at once.
An official of the Board of Directors of Indian Schools in Oman added that the principals of the 21 Indian Schools are soon expected to hand in their plans for students’ return to classrooms, after which the board will take a vote and expedite the same accordingly.
