Speaking at a cabinet meeting on Sunday evening, Rouhani thanked teachers and the Education Ministry and said, “Education is just one of the functions of schools, and virtual education is not a complete alternative to the school institution”.

He added, “Training, fostering creativity, growing collective spirit, cooperation, and socialization are other functions of school, which caused us to try to activate the school institution by protecting the health of the children of Islamic Iran”.

Millions of students headed back to schools across Iran on Saturday under health protocols. Schools had been shut in early March because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Iran rang in the new school year two weeks earlier than usual amid special COVID-19 measures. This year classes will be held through a combination of in-classroom, online and televised sessions.

Iran has been contending with the coronavirus pandemic amid US sanctions, which have seriously hampered efforts to contain the outbreak.

At least 384,666 people have been infected with COVID-19 in Iran as of Sunday. More than 22,000 have died, while 332,000 have recovered.

The president’s proposal, still short on public details, follows his continual plea for schools to welcome students back to classrooms despite gridlock in negotiation over a stimulus package that holds the promise of billions of dollars to help aid that reopening and facilitate distance education amid the pandemic.

“We got to open up. We got to open up our schools and open up our businesses,” Trump said during a White House briefing. “And a lot of it has been opened. But we can do better.”

Trump said earlier Wednesday that he wants federal funding to “follow the student” under the stimulus package being debated on Capitol Hill.

“We’re having a hard time with the Democrats. They want the money to follow the union,” he said, questioning why extra federal aid would go to schools that do not open for in-person instruction.

The president also offered recommendations and guidance for schools to protect “high-risk” teachers and students from the coronavirus, including through self-health assessments, frequent hand washing, minimizing large gatherings, improved classroom ventilation and social distancing. He said masks should be encouraged when social distancing is not possible.

“Those advocating for a never-ending blanket nationwide lockdown have no answer for what it would do to the mental, physical and social health of millions of American children and people,” Trump said.

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten called the White House recommendations “almost comical in their lack of detail and rigor” and said the administration “simply sketched out what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention produced months ago.”

“There’s no mention of the testing for kids and teachers or the threshold of community spread for schools to open,” Weingarten said. “They seem to finally understand the importance of ventilation and social distancing, but what are they doing to make it a reality?”

The stimulus plan Senate Republicans unveiled last month would boost school choice policies and set aside tens of billions of dollars in new funding for schools that reopen. But the battle over new coronavirus relief funds has stalled and could drag into September.

Pluralities of registered voters said this month that federal money for schools should neither be increased nor decreased, regardless of whether they open virtually or for in-person instruction, according to a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll.

Trump has been calling for schools to fully reopen and lashed out at hybrid learning plans on Wednesday, saying “the concept of every other day” at school is “ridiculous,” despite guidance to the contrary from leading health experts. The American Academy of Pediatrics has warned against a “one-size-fits-all approach.”

“If you are going to do it, you do it,” the president said. “If you are not going to do it, the concept of going back … every other day seems very strange.”

All schools in Iran will reopen on September 5 based on previous plan, Mohsen Haji Mirzaee said on Wednesday.

He added that students of both urban and rural schools with high population density will be divided into two groups in the new school year, some attending on even days and some on odd days.

The Iranian minister further said that in low-risk areas with a low population of students, schools will have a normal routine, and the use of cyberspace to provide education will continue.

The number of coronavirus positive cases who have recovered from the viral disease in Iran has surpassed 290,000, the Health Ministry’s spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

Sima Sadat Lari put the death toll from the coronavirus in the country at 18,988, saying the disease had taken the lives of 188 patients over the previous 24 hours.

She also noted that at least 290,244 patients have recovered from the coronavirus infection so far or have been discharged from hospitals across Iran.

The number of people infected with COVID-19 across the world has surpassed 20.8 million and the death toll has exceeded 747,000.

His comments follow a study earlier this month which warned that Britain risks a second wave of COVID-19 this winter twice as large as the initial outbreak if schools reopening happens without an improved test-and-trace system.

Writing in the Mail on Sunday, Johnson said reopening schools in September was a national priority. Schools would be the last places to close in future local lockdowns, he was quoted by another newspaper as telling a meeting on Thursday.

Schools in England closed in March during a national lockdown, except for the children of key workers, and reopened in June for a small number of pupils.

The government wants all pupils to return to school by early September in what Johnson has called a “national priority”.

“Keeping our schools closed a moment longer than absolutely necessary is socially intolerable, economically unsustainable and morally indefensible,” Johnson wrote, Reuters reported.

The economic costs for parents who cannot work if schools are shut are spiraling, and the country faces big problems if children miss out on education, the prime minister warned.

“This pandemic isn’t over, and the last thing any of us can afford to do becomes complacent. But now that we know enough to reopen schools to all pupils safely, we have a moral duty to do so,” he wrote.

The Sunday Times newspaper reported that he has ordered a public relations campaign to ensure schools open on time and told the meeting last week that they should be the last places to close behind restaurants, pubs, and shops.