All public schools across the country has been instructed to end the 2019-2020 academic year on Nov. 30, according to a new directive of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports issued Sunday night.

The new academic year 2020-2021 is expected to begin on Jan. 11, 2021, added the same source.

The lower secondary school and high school exams will take place as scheduled – on Nov. 30 and on Dec. 21, respectively, it continued.

For private schools, they were ordered to temporarily shut down for two weeks from today onwards, and e-learning must be applied during this period, except for grade 12th that needs to continue for the exam on Dec. 21, said the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports in another announcement.

The move was made after the outbreak of community transmission of COVID-19 was found in the family of a senior official at the Ministry of Interior.

This is the 3^rd schools closure because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Schools only reopened on 23 November after the 3d November incident which arose after the visit of the Hungarian Foreign Minister.

However, this appears to be a more serious case since the outbreak this time involved six from a family which had made widespread visits to many venues in the capital, attended meetings and other provincial travels.

Thus far, up at midnight Sunday, eight people have been tested positive from the community outbreak. More than 3,000 tests have been done on others who had either close contact with the victims or were in the vicinity of the infected patients. C. Nika – AKP/Khmer Times