COVID-19: Bahrain to survey parents on schooling

Cairo: Bahrain’s education authorities will soon survey parents of students in government-run schools on options to educate them in the new school year, a newspaper said Wednesday, as the kingdom is battling to contain the spread of the new coronavirus.

The Education Ministry is set to distribute questionnaires to parents to determine their teaching preferences, which include distance learning or a double system blending class attendance and online education, Akhbar Al Khaleej reported, citing unidentified sources.

The online-education will oblige students to observe a daily virtual schedule and log on to e-programmes at specific times.

The double education system, meanwhile, includes going to school two or three days at most every week and rely on distance learning the rest of the week, according to the report. Under this arrangement, a certain number of students will be specified to attend the classroom with the aim of ensuring social distancing. There is a possibility to cut hours of class attendance, the sources said. For example, the secondary school day can continue from 7.30am till 12 noon.

Last June, Bahrain set September 16 for reopening schools. Private schools will, however, open on different dates, starting from mid-August until the beginning of September.