South Sudan’s Ministry of General Education and Instruction on Tuesday announced the reopening of schools as high temperatures due to the heat waves abate.
According to a joint statement released by General Education Minister Awut Deng Acuil and National Minster Yolanda Awel Deng, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry has been monitoring the daily temperature across South Sudan and revealed a steady drop in the heat waves.
“Furthermore, the forecasts suggest lessening of heat waves and the start of the rainy season is expected in the subsequent weeks,” the statement read in part.
South Sudan closed all schools indefinitely about a fortnight ago as a result of heat waves that caused very high temperatures of between 41 and 45 degrees Celsius both during the day and night.
The statement announced that schools will resume on 2 April.
“We are therefore delighted to inform the public that the government has decided to reopen schools from Tuesday 2 April. However, because of the unpredictability in the climate, we caution teachers to adhere to the following measures,” the statement advised. “Maintain playground activities to early morning or preferably indoors, ventilate classrooms, provide water for learners during school time, and monitor children especially the young ones, for signs of heat exhaustion and heatstroke and alert medics in case of such cases.”
The two ministers said that their ministries and the environment ministry will continue closely observing the weather situation and advice accordingly.