Kurdistan announces e-school initiative to restart classes amid COVID-19 curfew

The Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Minister of Education announced in a televised speech on Thursday that an e-school program for grades one through twelve was being created to help students keep up their studies during the anti-coronavirus curfew that has closed centers of education throughout the autonomous region.

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Minister of Education announced in a televised speech on Thursday that an e-school program for grades one through twelve was now being implemented to help students keep up their studies during the anti-coronavirus curfew that has closed centers of learning throughout the autonomous region.

Since late February, educational institutions such as schools, colleges, and universities across the Kurdistan Region have been shut down as part of attempts by the KRG to mitigate the risk posed by COVID-19, a highly contagious disease that can spread quickly in crowded buildings and during other public gatherings.

“By taking Kurdistan Region’s reality into consideration, we decided to launch e-school portal services that students can benefit from,” said Minister Alan Hama Saeed at the press conference in Erbil.

“Each student has a personal account on the website so that they can listen and watch to the recorded classes by their instructors,” Saeed explained the procedure. “Likewise, teachers and principals can also have access to the portal to monitor and supervise the student’s learning process,” the official explained further.

“The subjects are available in all the languages and dialects that are taught at schools,” Saeed said, naming the Kurdish dialects of Sorani and Kurmanji, Arabic, English, Turkmen, and Syriac.

In addition to the most common standard subjects that have classes on the portal, he added, the new program also includes fine arts, computer science, Islamic studies, and sports.

With regards to homework submission, the education minister said, “Students can take pictures of their homework and send them to their instructors.”

He also said his ministry is in contact with the KRG’s Ministry of Transport and Communications and local internet service providers to make the portal free for all users across the Kurdistan Region, with extra assistance for those students who have limited internet access due to financial, geographical, or other reasons.

For those families and students who do not have smartphones or tablets, they will be able to access the materials on the Ministry of Education’s Educational TV channel that Saeed said broadcasts no less than 14 subjects for 12 hours every day.

In late March, officials from the Kurdistan Region's Salahaddin University announced the institution was taking steps to move studies online for the remainder of the winter semester.

Read More: Kurdistan universities consider online courses amid coronavirus lockdown

According to the figures of United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on the impact of COVID-19 on education worldwide, as of today, 1,579,634,506 students and learners’ education have been disrupted in 191 countries due to the pandemic. 

Editing by John J. Catherine