By: Johnny Baltzersen, CICED, joba@ciced.dk
There were happy smiles behind the corona masks as Children’s Ger welcomed students back to school on September 15, two weeks later than usual.
– Not all the students are here yet, says Saraa, Administrative Manager at Children’s Ger. Corona has also prevented us from conducting our usual outreach to families who we hear are unable to get their children into public schools.
– Yes, so there are only 20 students, whereas we normally have between 30 and 40 students, says Tunga, who is in charge of all teaching at Children’s Ger. However, the fact that there are few of us makes it a little easier to comply with the corona rules. We can only have 10 students in the classroom at a time, so it works well with our normal two-shift team.
The corona situation in Mongolia is highly fluctuating. After a slight improvement in August, the infection is back with a vengeance. Up until February-March this year, Mongolia had less than 50 confirmed cases, but this week the country crossed the 300,000 case mark. Of these, 90,000 in September alone, which also saw a sad record of 340 deaths. The situation is particularly worrying because Mongolia has actually fully vaccinated 66% of its population and the country is heading into the normally long and harsh winter.
– We would like to have all the students back in school, but we understand that some parents are cautious about sending their children out in the risk of infection. And as I said, we would also have trouble complying with the corona distance rules if everyone came to school. We can’t provide online teaching for those students who stay at home, but we do provide workbooks and books to the extent we can manage,” Saraa concludes.
Tunga is ready with the hand sanitizer and Saraa has masks ready for students who show up without one. Children’s Ger is up and running again. And you can still grab a meal during your lunch break.
