QUITO, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso on Wednesday signed an executive decree to reopen schools, which were closed more than a year ago due to COVID-19.
"The Ministry of Education is entrusted with designing a plan for the gradual, voluntary and progressive return to classrooms in schools in each parish of the country. This must be carried out as soon as possible," Lasso said during an official ceremony at a Quito school.
Face-to-face classes in Ecuador were suspended in March 2020 and replaced with distance learning.
The executive decree also includes the educational policies that the government will implement to modernize education.
Ecuador has so far registered 428,865 cases of COVID-19 and 15,193 deaths since its first case was detected on Feb. 29, 2020, according to the country's health ministry. Enditem