The Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee has recently said that the municipal authorities will seek authorization from the government to keep schools shut for by another month till the end of March and adjust the plan for 2019-2020 school year, local media reported.

Specifically, students will continue the second semester of the school year from April to July to fulfill the academic program. They can take summer holiday from August and the new school year will start in September 2020 as usual.

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All schools and educational institutions in the city are shut down until the end of February as a countermeasure to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

Experts believe that there is high risk of Covid-19 spreading in Ho Chi Minh City due to its large population, which is equivalent to Wuhan city of China, the epicenter of the epidemic.

Currently, Ho Chi Minh City has more than 1.7 million students from kindergarten to high school levels, which means that it is difficult to manage and control students if they are back to school, especially those carrying pathogens.

School shut down is expected to ease parents as mostof them are not comfortable to send their children to school at the moment.

Besides, if classes are resumed, each child’s health and safety need to be ensured, requiring a large number of medical masks, while face masks are becoming scarcer.

On the other hand, schools can take advantage of the break to apply sterilization and sanitation of premises.

The decision by the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee received endorsement from educational managers and the majority of parents.

Minister of Education and Training Phung Xuan Nha on February 14 affirmed that the school year 2019-2020 will be extended due to the Covid-19 epidemic and asked heads of local administrations to close schools based on the assessment of the epidemic situation.

The ministry asked education institutions to apply online teaching to maintain training programs progress.

Vietnam has more than 24 million of students. The school year in Vietnam begins in September and ends in May and June of the following year.