Ho Chi Minh City will pilot in-person learning for ninth and 12th graders in low-risk districts in December, according to the latest proposal of the municipal Department of Education and Training.

City chairman Phan Van Mai worked with the municipal education department on the organization of the 2021-22 academic year on Friday morning.

Pandemic control training for school staff and teachers is scheduled to take place in early December while a meeting with parents of ninth and 12th graders will be held before December 5, according to the schedule proposed by the education department.

Ninth and 12th graders fully vaccinated for at least 14 days can return to schools in low- and medium-risk areas on December 10.

However, the authorities did not determine an official back-to-school date for all students in the entire southern city at the end of Friday’s working session.

District-level authorities, on the other hand, will develop a plan to reopen schools based on the level of transmission risk.

In low-risk areas, schools can organize campus-based learning provided that they ensure strict compliance to the regulations on COVID-19 prevention and control.

In areas at medium risk, schools can combine in-person with online learning.

In areas at high risk, on-site classes can take place along with online and TV-based lessons, with priorities given to first, second, sixth, ninth, and 12th graders.

Class schedules must be arranged in a way that ensures social distancing and avoid large gatherings in a classroom in accordance with the set of COVID-19 safety assessment criteria for the education sector.

In areas at very high risk, the online studying mode will remain.

In response to the aforementioned proposal, chairman Mai agreed to the pilot of teaching ninth- and 12th-grade students at schools from mid-December when functional forces and school management boards have prepared all the necessary conditions.

At Friday’s meeting, the municipal education department reported that more than 574,000 students aged 12 to 17, or nearly 94 percent of this age group, had received the first doses of COVID-19 vaccine.

The second-dose vaccination for these students is scheduled to take place from November 22 to 28.

Ho Chi Minh City has been the biggest epicenter in the country since the fourth outbreak began on April 27, with over 454,000 local cases and around 17,200 deaths.

Since May 10, schools across the metropolis have closed for pandemic prevention.

The central government has relaxed pandemic control curbs over the past few weeks as transmissions have slowed down, due in part to larger vaccine coverage.

The city of about nine million people had administered over 13.8 million vaccine doses as of Saturday afternoon, with more than six million people fully inoculated.

However, the number of infections has appeared to rebound in recent days.

According to the COVID-19 map developed by the municipal Department of Information and Communications, as of Saturday afternoon, Ho Chi Minh City has 11 districts classified at low coronavirus risk and 11 others at medium coronavirus risk, including Can Gio.

The island district's Thanh An Commune was chosen for the reopening of some in-person classes on a trial basis, starting October 20.

The municipal education department's latest offline schooling proposal was made based on the re-evaluation of the pilot scheme of school reopening in Thanh An.

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