Malta’s plan for the reopening of the scholastic year is set to be finalised and presented in the “coming days”, Education Minister Justyne Caruana has told The Malta Independent.

“In the coming days we will be organising an activity where we will give the full programme and all the details”, Caruana told this newsroom when asked whether the government had finalised plans for how schools will reopen this coming September.

“The plan is there; obviously it needs to be evaluated by the health superintendence, and then obviously once we have everything in place we will share all of the information public so that everyone is aware and prepared for how the reopening of schools will take place”, she said.

Malta’s schools were initially shut in March 2020 when the first cases of COVID-19 were detected. Schooling resumed online a few weeks later, although teachers had to adapt the content of lessons at the last minute to adapt to the new reality.

Throughout the last scholastic year, primary and secondary schools physically reopened for students, although online lessons remained.  However, post-secondary schools and Universities did not physically open their doors, instead favouring a whole year of online lessons.

While the Education Minister did not say whether everyone would return to their classrooms, Health Minister Chris Fearne said on Tuesday in a separate press conference that the government was basing its exit strategy on the principle of getting every student – including older ones – physically back into their classrooms.

Caruana was also asked by this newsroom whether Malta would be making it obligatory for teachers and students to get vaccinated against Covid-19 as other countries, with the most recent being Italy, have ordered.

“It’s not just Italy [which have issued such an order] but other countries as well – in Malta however we are adopting a system wherein taking the vaccine is not obligatory. We do feel though that it is our duty to come together with the health authorities to appeal for as many people as possible to get vaccinated as this is a question of responsibility to others as well”, Caruana said.