Education Ministry to depend on students’ coronavirus awareness when schools start

AMMAN — It is necessary to adapt to living with coronavirus, and the Education Ministry is depending on students’ awareness when they return to school, Secretary General for Administrative Affairs at the ministry Najwa Qubeilat said on Wednesday.

In remarks to Hayat Radio, Qubeilat said that cloth face masks will be dispensed once to students in the eighth grade and above, noting that students under the age of 12 will not be required to wear face masks at schools.

Qubeilat delivered the statement following remarks from Feras Hawari, the director of the cancer control office and chief of pulmonary and critical care at the King Hussein Cancer Centre, who on Tuesday night said that students under the age of 12 are not required to wear face masks.

He explained that the children under 12 years of age are less vulnerable to the coronavirus infection, and that if children wear masks, they are more prone to make them dirty and transmit the virus.

This drew a harsh sarcastic wave on social media, especially on Facebook, as commenters described the statements as “ridiculous”.

“Are you saying that children under the age of 12 are immune to the coronavirus? This has become like their health insurance, with ‘for children under the age of 6’ written on it,” Mohamed Aljbour commented.

“This is ridiculous, young children and adults alike need to be careful,” another user commented. 

In the Q&A section of the World Health Organisation’s website a question “Should children wear a mask?” that was posted on August 21 was answered: “Children aged five years and under should not be required to wear masks. This is based on the safety and overall interest of the child and the capacity to appropriately use a mask with minimal assistance.”

The WHO and UNICEF advised that the decision to have children aged between six and 11 wear a mask should be based on “whether there is widespread transmission in the area where the child resides, access to masks, as well as laundering and replacement of masks in certain settings [such as schools and childcare services], adequate adult supervision and instructions to the child on how to put on, take off and safely wear masks, and impact of wearing a mask on learning and psychosocial development, in consultation with teachers, parents/caregivers and/or medical providers”.

The factors also include “specific settings and interactions the child has with other people who are at high risk of developing serious illness, such as the elderly and those with other underlying health conditions”, according to WHO. 

“The WHO and UNICEF advise that children aged 12 and over should wear a mask under the same conditions as adults, in particular when they cannot guarantee at least a one-metre distance from others and there is widespread transmission in the area,” the organisation added in its answer.

The WHO provides further information on the specifics on the link https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/q-a-children-and-masks-related-to-covid-19, where around 10 questions related to children and masks are answered.

As for the ministry’s dependency on students’ awareness as Qubeilat said, Lubna Salameh commented on Facebook, “just like they depended on citizens’ awareness, who ended up holding a wedding in Marka”, referring to the latest wedding that was alleged to be the cause of over 50 infections in Amman on Tuesday.

After reading the news, Badee Abd commented: “We are doomed”.