Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/. Today, August 13, Prime Minister L. Oyun-Erdene visited the general educational schools No: 75 in Khan-Uul district and No: 14 in Bayanzurkh district as well as kindergarten No: 146 in Bayanzurkh district with a view to see preparations for the new school year of 2021-2022 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Government has made a decision to start schooling activities of all educational institutions on September 1, 2021. This school year, all secondary schools nationwide will give classes on a two-shift basis. Every five-year-old child will be fully enrolled in the pre-school education. Moreover, the school lunch was decided to be changed to school meal program, with an increase of the daily cost per child from MNT 900 to MNT1500. “Special attention should be given to the quality of the lunch program because the nutritious meal has a major impact on children’s growth and learning ability,” said the PM.    

“As schools are going to open after a two-year closure, we have a big task to overcome the learning loss. The government will ensure all preparations to begin the schooling activities,” said the PM, emphasizing the importance of the participation of teachers as well as parents in eliminating the learning loss. 

Within the framework of the Japanese grant - JICA project, the old building of a school No.75 in Khan-Uul District was demolished and a new school with a capacity of 828 children was built there. Now it is ready to receive children this academic year. This school building, equipped fully with teaching equipment, was built according to the standards of the world's modern educational institutions. The school No: 75 has an inclusive learning environment for children with special needs. Prime Minister L. Oyun-Erdene emphasized that schools to be newly built in the future should be built according to the construction standards of School No.75.

With the grant aid from the Government of Japan, a five-phase project for the improvement of primary education facilities was successfully implemented in 1999-2021, resulted in construction of 49 schools and school annexes in Ulaanbaatar city. Prime Minister L.Oyun-Erdene expressed his sincere gratitude to the Government and people of Japan for their valuable contribution to the great deed to educate future generations of Mongolia and congratulated Ambassador of Japan Kobayashi Hiroyuki.

After getting acquainted with the preparations of some schools for the new academic year, the Prime Minister together with accompanying officials visited the kindergarten No: 146 of Bayanzurkh district of the capital city.

When the school year begins every year, the traffic congestion in the city considerably increases. Twenty five percent of traffic congestion are related to the movement of carrying children to and from schools and kindergartens; thus, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science has resolved to employ teachers on a shift basis in 25 kindergartens that locate in the most congested areas of the city. The kindergartens will begin at 7 A.M and dismiss at 8 P.M. Prime Minister L. Oyun-Erdene supported this initiative and said that the Government would implement a policy to decentralize and reduce the traffic congestion.