المملكة: Education School principals are given the authority to protect students from weather fluctuations

With the onset of winter, weather fluctuations and weather conditions increase, and temperatures begin to drop to record levels in various regions, leading to direct impacts on daily life, including the educational process.
The Ministry of Education explained that there are weather conditions that require suspending work in educational buildings and transferring studies to distance learning in order to preserve the safety of male and female students and school employees.

Converting distance learning

These cases include heavy rain reaching fifty millimeters or more, strong winds exceeding sixty kilometers per hour, waves reaching more than three metres, and dense fog with visibility less than one kilometre.
In addition to cold waves that reach seven degrees below zero, heat waves that exceed fifty-one degrees Celsius, and snow storms that exceed five centimeters in height.
The Ministry of Education confirmed that education departments in all regions and governorates have full powers to suspend in-person studies and convert them to distance education through educational platforms.

These departments can also advance, delay, or cancel morning lineups to suit the surrounding climate conditions. These decisions are made through specialized crisis management committees in each educational department, taking into account everyone’s safety.
The Ministry explained that education directors have the authority to convert in-person education to distance education in accordance with the instructions regulating that in cases that include risks that threaten the safety of students, such as the impact of heavy rain on school buildings, the spread of infectious diseases or epidemics classified by the Ministry of Health, or national or global situations. Which requires the closure of roads or areas surrounding school buildings, in addition to the possibility of temporarily suspending classes for up to six weeks for reasons related to the development of the building infrastructure.

The Ministry granted school principals the authority to convert in-person classes to distance learning in emergency situations, such as urgent maintenance, a power or water outage for one day, or the presence of risks that affect the safety of male and female students, whether inside the school building or on their way to it, such as fire accidents or the collapse of parts of the school. The building, environmental pollution, or leakage of hazardous materials requires disinfection operations.
These measures come within the ongoing efforts made by the Ministry of Education to ensure the continuity of the educational process and provide a safe environment for all male and female students and school employees, taking into account emergency weather conditions and employing digital platforms to achieve continuity of education in all circumstances.