The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education has emphasised that parents and guardians remain banned from visiting learners at boarding schools as COVID-19 prevention protocols remain in place.
The ban was imposed in 2021 during which the Government also reduced intakes at boarding schools as a preventative measure to allow learners to learn and live in a safe environment where social distancing was possible.
Speaking in a telephone interview with The Sunday News yesterday the Ministry’s director of communications and advocacy, Mr Taungana Ndoro emphasised that the ban was still effective. He said:
COVID-19 protocols are still in place in our schools. We follow national COVID-19 guidelines.
His remarks come as schools are set to open on Monday 09 January for the first term of 2023.
In 2021, schools were prohibited from taking additional learners outside the permissible numbers in a bid to contain the situation.
Cabinet last year opened schools in compliance with the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) of the Prevention and Management of COVID-19 as well as other Influenza-like illnesses.
The SOPs are minimum terms of operation that are set to ensure schools operate in a safe environment without risking a spike in new infections.
Other measures:
i). Handshakes, hugs and sharing of desks were prohibited and still remain prohibited in schools while classroom occupancy was reduced to 35 learners per classroom.
ii). Learners have been sanitising as they enter the premises of their schools and masking up to ensure there is no spread of the virus.
Health officials in the country have been calling on people to remain vigilant as fresh cases of the pandemic continue to be recorded.
A new variant of the COVID-19 virus, XBB, which is a sub-lineage of the Omicron variant has been detected in more than 80 countries with Botswana having detected cases towards the end of last year.