AfricaPress-Tanzania: ALL schools will open on June 29, 2020, President John Magufuli announced yesterday.
This makes Tanzania the first east African country to reopen its schools after Covid-19 outbreak forced the government to suspend classses.
Dr Magufuli made the announcement in his speech to dissolve the 11th Parliament.
“I would like to use this opportunity to announce all schools that were closed as part of efforts to fight the Covid-19 pandemic in March this year are re-opened for students and pupils to proceed with their studies,” Dr Magufuli announced.
The President’s decision comes exactly three months after the government suspended school pragrammes to keep students safe from Covid-19 outbreak.
Soon after the country recorded its first Covid-19 case on March 16, 2020 the government suspended all nursery, primary and secondary school the following day.
He said his decision to reopen schools was due to declining Covid- 19 cases.
On June 1, 2020 all higher learning institutions and colleges were reopened after the country recorded huge success in its battle against the novel virus.
Dr Magufuli lauded all key actors and Tanzanians for successfully containing the spread of the Coronavirus, with latest statistics showing the rate of transmis stopped have to start again, but it’s very important to continue observing the precautions as suggested by health experts to avoid further transmissions,” he added.
Other activities that were banned during the peak of Covid-19 include mass gatherings, political rallies and unnecessary movements.
Unlike other countries, Tanzania didn’t go into lockdown or curfew instead, the government insisted members of the public to adhere to measures by health experts.
On Monday, Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa said in the parliament that the country had 66 Covid-19 patients who are receiving treatment at various designated centres.
According to President Magufuli, the recorded achievements resulted from the unity and solidarity demonstrated by Tanzanians of all walks of life including the parliament that proceeded with their sessions despite fear that engulfed almost every individual.
“Running from the problem isn’t a solution, those who ran away from the problem shouldn’t have done that,” he said thanking religious leaders who led national prayers for the Covid-19 to be washed away, as the result the rate of transmission is extremely going down.
After the eruption of Covid-19 in Africa, the World Bank (WB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicted that 60 per cent of Sub-Saharan African Countries would record negative growth of their economies in 2020.
But President Magufuli assured that with the initiatives that the government has taken, the country would not record negative growth but the economy is projected to grow by 5.5 per cent and even more than that.
Since June 1, this year, the government reopened all universities and colleges for them to resume with studies.
The instruction was also applied to form six students who were in preparation for their final exams before the Covid-19 break.
The new development came following the statistics that showed the decline of the number of coronavirus patients in the country with Tanzanians continuing to observe all the precautions for preventing the pandemic.
