Staff Writer
Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture has announced that face-to-face classes for grade 11 and 12 in Walvis Bay, Swakopmund and Arandis will resume on Monday, the 20th of July despite rising cases of COVID-19 in some of the towns.
Walvis Bay is currently the epicenter of COVID-19 cases in the country with 40 out of the 46 cases recorded on Friday being from the costal town.
On Wednesday, of the 72 new cases recorded, two were from Swakopmund and 68 were from Walvis Bay.
Executive Director in the Education ministry, Sanet Steenkamp said although the return of students will be voluntary, the development is aimed at assisting students in preparation for their final exams.
“As a Ministry, through our issued guidelines on alternative schooling as learning from home delivery mode, the return of learners to school is voluntary. Therefore measures are in place for parents who would opt for learning from home. However, parental and schooling management responsibility are vital in maximizing this approach particularly in preparation of the external NSSC-Ordinary and Higher Level examination by the end of the year,” she said.
Steenkamp without specifying if any inspections had been made and the exact number of schools from the town that are compliant with the ministry’s compliance guidelines said, “the Ministry has developed compliance standards for the operation of schools, and schools that do not meet these standards will not resume operations until they are fully met.”
The resumption of face to face classes in the three towns comes amid concerns by teachers unions over the emergence of COVID-19 local transmission in the country.
Namibia currently has 1,078 cumulative confirmed cases of COVID-19.
