Candidates at Chinese Friendship Secondary School during the examinations on December 16, 2019. | Credit | Charles Wote/Eye Radio

The Ministry of General Education and Instructions has directed schools to reopen next Monday, for only candidate classes.

This comes six months after the government closed schools in March to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease.

In early September, the cabinet approved the reopening of schools but directed the ministry of education and the ministry of health to work out modalities of reopening.

The Minister of General Education and Instructions, Awut Deng now says schools will only be reopened for candidate classes because the risk of coronavirus is still high.

“The ministry asks schools to adapt the following procedures: provision of washing facilities – water tanks, sanitizers, and soaps – disinfection of schools, and classes must be split into small sizes,” Ms Deng told the media.

She says least 75,000 primary candidates and 35,000 secondary school candidates will start phase one of reopening on Monday.

The education ministry also says Primary Certificate Exams are scheduled for early February 2021 while S4 candidates will sit in mid-March 2021.