All government primary schools in Tonga have been temporarily closed until Monday, 25 November 2019.
The closure is to further contain the outbreak of measles, which is more likely to happen when children are gathering together in large numbers, as in schools.
The primary schools will resume from 25 November to enable them to provide students’ academic reports and conduct their prize giving ceremonies.
A statement said the closure date can be extended pending advice from Ministry of Health.
All high schools will continue to operate as the Ministry of Health vaccinates students starting from Form 1 to Form 4 and continuing to Form 5 to 7 when their exams are completed by Monday, 18 November.
The Non-government schools were consulted and have been informed of the Government’s intent, and supported the measures recommended by Ministry of Health and will issue their own communication folio for their schools.
“We support the recommendations from the Ministry of Health to take precautionary measures to minimize the spread of measles amongst our students. Whilst the parents, teachers and the public should not be unduly alarmed, we urge you all to treat these measures with a degree of seriousness. We ask you to support us in our efforts to contain this measles outbreak, given that there have been fatal incidences in our neighbouring countries. I thank the Ministry of Health and Education for their collaborative initiative to address this measles outbreak and I persuade the public to support these mitigating measures”, said the Minister of Education and Training, Siaosi Sovaleni.
Parents are being advised to keep their children at home during this temporary closure of schools to limit their contact with other children who may be infected.
During this temporary closure students are asked not to return to the outer islands yet as they may spread this measles outbreak.
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