AMMAN — The Ministry of Health announced that it
will start vaccinating children aged 12 and above against COVID-19 starting
Sunday without prior registration. This extension of the vaccination program is
part of an effort to bring back in-person learning at schools.
اضافة اعلان
According to Najwa Qubeilat, the secretary general of the Ministry
of Education, “the Ministry of Health opened the door for people living in
Jordan to take the vaccines, including children, under the condition of having
their parent accompanying them and with no prior registration needed.”
Qubeilat stated in an interview with Jordan News that
a ministry-led catch-up program will start in mid-August and last for about a
month.
She added that the first time schools closed their doors to
students was in mid-March of 2020. On September 1, 2020, schools opened again
for one month, but after a spike in cases, they closed again, switching to
online education for a second time.
The Ministry of Education initiated the online learning
process by releasing three TV stations and the “DARSAK” platform.
Qubeilat pointed out that 80 percent of schoolteachers have
been vaccinated against COVID-19, and the ministry is aiming to take that to
100 percent as soon as possible. According to Qubeilat, a vaccination campaign
targeting teachers took place between March and May.
Teachers and parents both alluded to the importance of
getting “everyone vaccinated,” in order to end the pandemic and resume
in-person learning after three semesters of online education.
Osama Al-Azzam, director of the Yarmouk University Model
School in Irbid, told Jordan News “that there is a responsibility on
teachers to encourage students to take vaccines.”
Azzam added that the “teachers’ role, which comes after the roles
of the MOE and the MOH, lies in raising awareness about the importance of
vaccines in the continuation of the education process.”
Mayada Halabi, mother of a child aged 14 who has yet to take
the vaccine, stated that her child’s experience with online learning has been “lacking.”
”I am not satisfied with the online learning process because
it wasted a lot of time and caused confusion and carelessness among students,”
she said.
“Students are excited to re-experience social life in school.
Education will be better.”
Hisham Ali, father of another child who did not yet get
inoculated, told Jordan News that “We went to Al-Hasan sport city today after the Ministry of
Health’s announcement, but the vaccination center informed us that they did not
get an official letter from the ministry to start vaccinating children.”
Ali also said he is
“hopeful that after half of the Kingdom’s population gets vaccinated, life can
go back to normal, and I can send my child to school again.”
Jordan News was unable to reach the Ministry of Health
for comments on the issue.
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