Rules for reopening kindergarten worked on by Ministry, UNICEF

Muscat: Protocols for kindergartens and nurseries to reopen in Oman have been laid out by the Ministry of Social Development, in collaboration with the UNICEF.

Laila Ahmed Al Najjar, the Minister of Social Development, met with Ted Chaiban, UNICEF’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, to discuss the safety protocols needed to allow young children back to school.

“We’ve recommended that children get their temperature taken at the entrance of schools, and that they are segregated into groups of, say, five, so that whatever happens to those only affects those five,” said Chaiban, in an exclusive interview with Times of Oman.

“We’re training teachers so that they get used to wearing masks all day and washing their hands regularly, and for a teacher to always supervise these children while they are playing,” he added.

He added that of the 110 million children in the Middle East and North Africa, 40 per cent of them do not have access to adequate facilities to learn remotely, which make it very important for kindergartens, nurseries and early learning centres to reopen.

The meeting between the ministry and the UNICEF touched on the document of the unified procedures of operation and the executive plan to re-open nurseries.

It also reviewed forming teams of monitoring, follow-up and evaluation in different governorates of the Sultanate to ensure the commitment of nurseries to the precautionary and preventive measures.

“Research has shown that children below 12 are not considered vectors of the coronavirus, so it is okay to reopen schools, following certain procedures,” Chaiban added.

“We actually visited a couple of schools, and the parents were very thankful that they were going back to school, because it is very important for children to socialise with others from the ages of three and above,” he said.

“If you start it then, children are automatically encouraged to do this on their own.”

UNICEF’s Regional Director praised the Sultanate’s experience in terms of the operational procedures adopted after the decision to re-open schools during the COVID-19 pandemic for the health and safety of children and staff.

The meeting was attended by Lana Al Wreikat, the UNICEF Representative to the Sultanate. “Of course, kindergartens and nurseries will still follow blended learning, because we still can’t have all the children in school at the same time, due to COVID,” Chaiban said.