RIYADH: UNICEF has praised Saudi Arabia’s decision to reopen its schools for kindergarten and elementary students. Jumana Haj Ahmad, the agency’s deputy representative for the Gulf area, said it was an important step, adding that during the COVID-19 pandemic schools should be the last to close and first to reopen. Ahmad’s remarks came during a visit to the Kingdom’s Satellite Broadcasting School, where Education Ministry’s Undersecretary for Public Education Mohammed bin Saud Al-Migbel gave a briefing on how lessons delivered by the facility were recorded and supervised. He also gave a presentation on the Madrasati and Rawdati platforms. Ahmad said that Saudi Arabia’s provision of online education through the two platforms and the EIN channels was worldleading. She also noted the Ministry of Education’s efforts to ensure children’s psychological and social growth, and programs to protect them from abuse. The ministry said that elementary and kindergarten students in all the regions of the Kingdom would begin returning to school from Sunday. Schools in remote areas would be the first to open as there were fewer coronavirus cases there, it said.