Education Ministry aims to reopen schools by November

FRIDAY, September 10, 2021

The Education Ministry said on Thursday that it intends to reopen schools by November, in time for the second semester of the 2021 academic year.

Ministry spokesperson Kesthip Supawanich said postponing or suspending the reopening of schools will affect the development of children. She also said it was not fair to get students stressed and affected in the long term.

The ministry has been calling on schools to avoid overburdening students with too much homework and for teachers to stop covering too much of the curriculum in their classes.
She said teachers should balance their lessons between theory and practice.

She went on to say that the ministry has been working with the Department of Health and Department of Mental Health on finding ways to ease the stress of students, teachers and parents. The departments have collected information on different teaching methods, which will be distributed among teachers.

The ministry has also conducted a survey on 35,000 schools or so and learned they use a myriad of teaching methods, ranging from online and on-demand classes to teaching via television or radio, in person and on site.

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The authorities have also launched a “Sandbox Safety Zone in School” project, under which students can attend classes safely in school by limiting the entry of people and conducting frequent rapid antigen tests. Many schools have been employing this method since August.