HCMC district plans to reopen schools next month

As planned, the district will review the pandemic situation and resume classes in areas that are qualified enough to ensure student safety.

The review will include looking at the number of teachers that are fully vaccinated, said Le Minh Dung, Party chief of Can Gio, an outlying district to the southeast of Ho Chi Minh City.

Authorities will also have parents involved in planning.

"The plan will first give priority to reopening classes for first and second graders, as well as for seniors and freshmen at secondary and high schools," he said.

Once the plan is completed, Can Gio will submit it to the city administration and municipal Education and Training Department.

Official data states Can Gio has more than 13,100 students from primary to high schools along with 1,400 education staff including teachers. Of the teaching staff, 98 percent have been fully vaccinated.

If the plan is approved, Can Gio will be the first district in HCMC, epicenter of Vietnam’s fourth Covid-19 wave, to have students back in class.

The district, along with Cu Chi and District 7, has basically put the Covid-19 outbreak under control.

Earlier this month, the city Department of Education and Training proposed a plan to reopen schools, giving priority to kindergartens, first and second grades as it is hard for those children to learn online; and to seniors at high schools and secondary schools.

The department also suggested having private schools reopen first as none are being used for Covid-19 quarantine or treatment facilities.

HCMC has recorded 358,707 patients and almost 14,000 deaths so far in the latest Covid-19 wave that broke out late April.

Since late May, it has undergone different levels of social distancing orders and is currently imposing the strictest order yet, requiring every resident to stay home.

More than 1.3 million students from primary to high schools in the city have been learning online since the new school year started early September. Around 340,000 preschoolers have yet to attend as planned.