GAZA:  More than one million students in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip have returned on Monday to their schools after several months of school closure due to the spread of the covid-19.

According to Reports, about 1.2 million students, as well as 71,000 teachers, returned to their schools on Monday across the West Bank and the coastal Palestinian enclave. Some of the schools belong to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), while others are private educational institutions. "Students went back to schools a month earlier than planned to make up for the gap that the past year has created," Basri Saleh, the deputy education minister, as per reports.

The education minister added that the current academic year will be divided into four semesters, instead of two, for fear of any emergency that can occur because of the pandemic. On Sunday, Minister Marwan Awartani said that the teaching staff "will not be able to enter schools" unless they are fully vaccinated. He confirmed that the Palestinian educational system is ready to receive students by providing a decent and safe space for each one of them.

The ministry emphasized that school staff across the West Bank are required to wear face masks at all times, whether it is inside classrooms or in the open area. It has also obliged students from 11 to 16 years old to do the same and demanded that any visitor, who plans to attend schools, should be able to present a vaccination certificate.

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