TEHRAN – Schools will reopen this year with a delay of one month under health protocols amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Each year, Iranian students start the school year on September 23, which marks the first day of autumn on the Iranian calendar, after a three-month summer vacation, while this year, in light of the pandemic, the school year will start a month later.

This year, education is in three forms of in-person, virtual, and television-based.

Last year’s reopening of schools was based on the cities in terms of the severity of infection, but now we are trying to reduce the disease transmission through social distancing, and vaccination, Alireza Kamraei, deputy minister of education stated.

Re-opening educational areas with lower student density, less populated classrooms, and greater social distancing, are the priorities, he noted.

He went on to say that in order to reopen schools, observance of health protocols, social distancing, and personal health of students and staff will be the basic principles, IRNA reported on Saturday.

Referring to the vaccination of teachers and school staff, he said that teachers already received the first dose of vaccination and the second dose has been started.

All educational centers in Iran were closed since February 2020.

In order for students to keep in touch with their studies, the Ministry of Education launched a homegrown mobile application on April 9, called SHAD, providing students with distance learning programs. More than 60 percent of students and 94 percent of teachers attended 64 percent of classes through the SHAD app, whose acronym in Persian translates as the Students Education Network.

Moreover, the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) also began to broadcast televised educational programs on a daily basis after school closures.

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