Turkey Plans to Reopen All Schools as Long as Virus Keeps Receding

Seagulls in front of the Maiden's Tower in Istanbul on April 8, 2020 (AFP)
Seagulls in front of the Maiden's Tower in Istanbul on April 8, 2020 (AFP)
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Turkey Plans to Reopen All Schools as Long as Virus Keeps Receding

Seagulls in front of the Maiden's Tower in Istanbul on April 8, 2020 (AFP)
Seagulls in front of the Maiden's Tower in Istanbul on April 8, 2020 (AFP)

Turkey plans to reopen schools nationwide on Aug. 31, to get students back into classrooms and free up working parents, assuming a recent stabilization in coronavirus cases holds.

Teachers and administrators are preparing on-site health precautions, but two government sources told Reuters that the daily infection rate may need to dip below the more than 900 seen recently to allow them to execute what they called Plan A.

Schools shifted to distance education in March, when Turkey identified its first case and began restricting movement.

Much of the economy reopened on June 1, after the school year ended, but masks and other hygiene measures are still required in public.

“We have been told that the schools will reopen, so we will see how it goes,” said a first-grade teacher in the southern city of Antalya. “I do feel a bit concerned about my students’ and my family’s health, of course.”

About half of Turkey’s nearly 230,000 cases and more than 5,600 deaths are in its biggest city, Istanbul, the government says. The capital Ankara and Diyarbakir in the mainly Kurdish southeast have also been hotspots.

One government source said that “if the number of cases decreases, all schools will be opened”, but that otherwise schools in high-infection areas might remain closed.

A second senior official said classes might have to remain online for some southeastern provinces. “The normalization is under way ... but the numbers should have fallen faster.”

A primary school teacher based in the southeast said some of her students had not had the means to attend online classes, adding: “Online teaching can never be as efficient as classroom learning.”

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his cabinet will make a final decision late next month based on the spread of infection and advice from scientists, the officials said.

Turkey's economy virtually stagnated in the second quarter and is expected to shrink this year.



Russian Drone Attack Injures 29 in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia

Rescuers work at a site of an apartment building hit by a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine May 1, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer
Rescuers work at a site of an apartment building hit by a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine May 1, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer
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Russian Drone Attack Injures 29 in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia

Rescuers work at a site of an apartment building hit by a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine May 1, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer
Rescuers work at a site of an apartment building hit by a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine May 1, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer

A Russian drone attack late on Thursday set buildings ablaze in Ukraine's southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, injuring 29 people, including a child, regional governor Ivan Fedorov said.
He said Russian forces had made at least 10 strikes on the city, damaging private homes, tens of high-rise apartment buildings, educational institutions and infrastructure sites.
Three people were rescued from the rubble and 12 people were being treated in hospital, Fedorov added, according to Reuters.
The Ukrainian air force said it shot down 64 of 150 drones launched by Russia overnight. Another 62 drones did not reach their targets, likely due to electronic warfare countermeasures, it said.
It did not specify what happened to the remaining 24 drones.
Pictures posted online showed a building ablaze and rescue teams making their way through rubble and clambering up the side of damaged buildings on extended ladders. One picture showed a rescue team carrying an injured man to safety.
Ukraine's state-owned railway Ukrzaliznytsia said the attack on Zaporizhzhia also damaged its locomotive repair plant, an enterprise which specializes in the repair of passenger electric locomotives.
The plant will not be able to function anymore due to significant damage, Fedorov said in televised remarks.