When should schools reopen? Over 50,000 take part in survey

Muscat: With the participation of more than 50,000 people, the Ministry of Education carried out a survey for the beginning of academic activities in various educational institutions in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic.

The survey was open for public from 7th August 2020 to 9th August. The ministry has received 52,072 answers in total.

The ministry said in a statement, "Within 17 hours of the survey launch, more than 37,000 people responded and the total respondents are before the survey was closed on Sunday morning at 9:00 am."

The ministry added, "Honorable brothers and sisters, Thank you for your great response, and for your kind cooperation in filling out the questionnaire. Your opinions will be taken to support the decision to be issued regarding the mechanism of operating the next academic year 2020/2021."

The questionnaire included four alternatives to the method of returning the study which is mentioned below:

Option 1: Going to school on a daily basis while reducing student density and taking the necessary health precautions.

Option 2: Defining classes with educational priority for students to go to school and for the remaining classes to stay at home for online study.

Option 3: Students staying home and studying online during the first semester and return to schools during the second semester in case the pandemic is contained.

Option 4: A combination of students going to school for some days and study online on the other days.