SCHOOL'S BACK: Students at Phú Nhuận High School in HCM City have their body temperatures checked before entering class. — Photo tuoitre.vn

HCM CITY — More than 600,000 students in grades 7 to 12 in HCM City returned to school for in-person learning on Monday.

After a long period of studying online due to the pandemic, they began classes after the Tết (Lunar New Year) holidays, which lasted from January 31 to February 4.

Nguyễn Văn Hiếu, director of the city’s Department of Education and Training, said the city’s COVID-19 alert level remained at level 1, meaning the risk of COVID was low for a fifth consecutive week.

“The regulation of arranging direct teaching for 12-30 lessons per week or 50 per cent of the students study in class is no longer relevant to the current pandemic situation,” Hiếu said.

The department has assigned principals of secondary and high schools to develop plans for combining online and offline learning, providing semi-boarding and boarding services, opening canteens or offering day-boarding meals.

The principals can decide the number of offered lessons for both online and offline learning.

Schools must arrange schedules to enable parents to pick up and drop off their children and comply with pandemic safety requirements.

They are required to fully organise physical education and extracurricular activities on school grounds.

Schools can offer two sessions a day, semi-boarding and boarding services, and open canteens if they meet all safety regulations, according to Hiếu.

“They will not be allowed to have direct learning or organise other activities outside their campus,” he said

About 1.7 million students at preschools and primary, secondary and high schools in the city will return to school from February 7.

According to the Ministry of Education and Training, secondary and high schools at all provinces and cities across the country have announced plans to resume in-person learning for their students, between February 7 and 14.

Sixty out of 63 provinces and cities now allow students at preschools and primary schools back to school in February.

All universities and colleges have planned for their students to return to class in February.

The ministry has asked departments of education and training in collaboration with health departments to welcome students back and deal with pandemic safety during in-person teaching. — VNS