Iran’s Ministry of Health Education Deputy: Exams at Medical Universities Will Be Held In-Person
Coinciding with protests by students at medical universities against holding in-person exams, the deputy for education at Iran’s Ministry of Health emphasized in a letter that exams for all educational levels across all disciplines at medical universities will be held in-person.
Abolfazl Bagheri Fard, deputy for education at Iran’s Ministry of Health, stated that the validity of virtual exams is “questionable” and emphasized that holding virtual exams at medical universities has not been a good experience. The students’ professional council of the Ministry of Health announced that with the decision of the education deputy of the Ministry of Health, it will “deal with isolated decisions that are outside the Ministry of Health’s resolutions.”
Students also protest the operation of dormitories at full capacity and disregard for health protocols. However, the director general of student affairs at the Ministry of Health stated that “student presence and adherence to health protocols are completely observed and managed, and the rate of coronavirus infection among students is very low.”
Additionally, with growing concerns about the spread rate of Omicron in Iran and the lack of accurate statistics on cases, the secretary of the pediatric infection board of Iran’s scientific coronavirus committee deemed the in-person reopening of schools without vaccination “problematic.”
Abdullah Karimi said: “If we have 10 cases of Omicron, within one and a half to three days this number could double.”
Recently, the scientific secretary of coronavirus told ISNA news agency about the situation of schools under current coronavirus conditions that he had “from the very beginning” declared his opposition to the complete reopening of schools. Hamid Reza Jamaati considered the presence of students in unventilated classrooms dangerous.
On the other hand, the deputy for physical education and health of the Khorasan Razavi education department says there is a disagreement between the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education regarding the non-attendance of unvaccinated students at school or the non-attendance of students who do not provide a negative PCR test at least once a week.
Safdar Soltani said the national coronavirus control headquarters has delegated this matter to an agreement between the two ministries, and therefore no resolution has been issued yet.
Iranian schools have resumed in-person activities while vaccination of children under 12 years old has not yet begun in Iran, and no information has been provided regarding the safety and efficacy of domestic vaccines for children in this age group.
The vaccines considered for children in this age group are Sinovac and Pastococoa.
Source: Voice of America
