Society

Japan's schools to stay open under COVID-19 emergency

Apr 24 (Japan Times) - The government plans to keep schools open in prefectures placed under a COVID-19 state of emergency in an effort to avoid interrupting education, officials have said.

Education ministry guidelines say that region-wide school closures due to the pandemic should be avoided from the viewpoint of ensuring healthy learning and for the mental and physical health of children.

Schools “should provide continuous learning with infection prevention measures firmly in place,” education minister Koichi Hagiuda told a news conference on Friday, indicating that the government has no plans to ask prefectures placed under the emergency to shut schools.

In the city of Osaka, the board of education plans to introduce online classes, with some students coming to school for part of the day. For online classes, students will use tablets and other devices distributed to all 160,000 pupils attending municipal elementary and junior high schools.

The Osaka Prefectural Government has asked schools to suspend extracurricular activities and to cancel or postpone school trips.

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