Education Minister announces details on reopening of schools

PNG Minister for Education Hon Joseph Yopyyopy today announced details on the reopening and recovery of school lessons.

Full Statement below:

Due to the current State of Emergency (SOE) to contain the spread of Covid-19 we have lost 5 weeks of effective teaching and learning (4 weeks in Term 1 and 1 week of Term 2). The following instructions are to be followed to recover the lost instructional hours and to continue the 2020 academic year.

Instruction 1: All Teachers must resume on 27/4/2020 and prepare for classes to resume on 4/5/2020.

Instruction 2: Term 2 classes start on 4/5/2020 and ends on 10/7/2020. Term 3 will start as per the Education Calendar on 20/7/2020.

Instruction 3: We will maintain normal 5 days of school per week.

Instruction 4: We will recover 1 week by reducing term 2 holidays from 2 weeks to 1 week – 3/7/20 to 17/7/2020.

Instruction 5: We will recover the other four weeks by adding One lesson period to the normal classes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and Two periods added to Tuesdays and Thursdays each week. For example, in high schools – there will 8 additional periods each week or equivalent to gaining 1 additional day each week. Hence in Terms 2 and 3 – we will gain 19 days or about four (4) weeks.

Instruction 6: The SOE started at the end of Week 6 of Term 1. So, all schools will resume teaching and assessment programs from week 7 of Term I and cover all lost hours by the last day of Term 3.

Instruction 7: Schools are instructed to manage the internal school timetables and where necessary provide extra work for students.

Instruction 8: As lost hours must be recovered before the end of Term 3, so students have learnt all required unit of work and are ready for national examinations in October – Term 4.

Instruction 9: Internal School Assessment schedules are revised and adopted to It and completed by Terms dales stated above;

Instruction 10: The 2020 NIST Week is cancelled to recover I week. but schools are encouraged to develop and promote ongoing school-based in-service training plan throughout the year.

Instruction 11: The Lower Secondary (Grade 10 Written Expression) Examination was scheduled for 4/6/2020, but will now be deferred to 18/6/2020. All other national examination dates will not change.

The Department of Education will conduct awareness on Covid-19 by using the “New Normal” messages and Actions in schools published by WHO, UNICEF and IRC and adopted by the Government of Papua New Guinea. These are basic principles that con help keep the students, teachers and staff safe at school and help stop the spread of Covid- I 9.

I acknowledge the important support provided by our partners especially UNICEF, Australian High Commission, Child Fund, World Vision, Caritas PNG, Callan Services and the Churches Education Council in our efforts to ensure that our students and teachers ore prepared for emergencies such as the Covid-19.

The awareness will be implemented using national, subnational and school funding, but implemented locally through WaSH and Health Education programs under the School Learning and Improvement Plan (SLIP).

I advise schools to lake ownership of the “NEW NORMAL” Action Plan programs and implement throughout the education system using existing funding mechanisms and policies, such as the Health Education Programs, School Learning Improvement Plans (SLIP) and WaSH Program.

Minister for Education Hon Joseph Yopyyopy MP

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