“We are concerned over that decision … It was an abrupt decision and we were really shocked. We are certain this will do a lot of damage to students' knowledge, and will cause them frustration, discouragement and anxiety. All teachers are dissatisfied with this decision, even families of the students,” Atta Ahmed, deputy head of the Kurdistan Teachers’ Union, told Rudaw Radio on Sunday.
Abulsalam Dolamari, head of the Parliamentary Committee for Education, Higher Education and Scientific Research, announced on Wednesday that classes for grades one to eleven would be temporarily suspended after the Newroz holiday until April 8 except for examinations due to a surge in Coronavirus cases, but Grade 12 students were to return to classes.
The deputy head complained that public spaces and institutions are being kept open, while schools are being kept shut.
“What is strange is that most of the public places are now open and all these festivals were held in Sulaimani during Newroz … hundreds of thousands of people gathered … no offices, institutions or other public places are closed except for schools, despite controlling schools being much easier than those public places,” said Ahmed.
The United Nations children’s organization (UNICEF) in February also criticized the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) decision to reopen restaurants and other facets of public life, while keeping schools closed.
“We will pay the price in the future for the level of education of the students that we are cutting off from school,” added Ahmed.
Kurdistan Region schools have been ordered shut and re-opened several times over the past year by the government due to the pandemic. They were last reopened in February, followed two weeks later by the discovery of a number of cases of the UK coronavirus variant in the Kurdistan Region.
The Kurdistan Region is seeing a second wave of the coronavirus, recording a steady increase in daily new infections since mid-February. It hit a record high on Sunday as the health ministry recorded 926 new cases and 11 deaths in just 24 hours.
“There’s a lot of pressure on us, they [teachers] are moving on the subjects so fast and teaching a lot in one go,” Diya Goran, a grade 11 student in Sulaimani told Rudaw English on Sunday.
“We’ve lost interest in everything and can’t stand studying, and we haven’t even covered much. I don’t know what they’re planning to do for exams,” said Goran, noting that the performance of her and her peers has tremendously suffered.
The Kurdistan Teachers’ Union leader said the decision to keep schools shut was based on a lack of information.
“Those who are behind the decision haven’t collected the adequate information and are not properly aware of the situation,” said Ahmed, urging the Ministry of Education to monitor the situation to see if students are those primarily being infected with the virus.
“We are very dissatisfied with this decision and we hope the decision is reviewed and other measures are taken against the virus … closing down schools is not a solution,” said the deputy.
