Kwun Tong School First To Resume Full Day Classes

Form six students at a Kwun Tong secondary school on Monday became the first in Hong Kong to resume full-day classes, saying it is important to be able to spend more time in lessons to prepare for public exams.

Delia Memorial School (Hip Wo) has been allowed to resume whole-day form six classes being as more than 70 percent of the students and teachers have been vaccinated against Covid.

One of the students, Aaron, who received BioNTech jabs a few months ago, said it will be better to study with his friends.

"I think it's about time that we have normal classes. I'm sure everyone is excited about it. It's easier to study with teachers and students around you than at home. At home you get distracted," he said.

Another student, surnamed Ip, who received Sinovac jabs, said he couldn't stick to his learning schedule when there were only online classes in the past year.

"It is necessary [to resume full-day classes]. Because of the pandemic, my learning progress was quite behind... there will be more learning time when I can attend full-day lessons." he said.

"There wasn't enough lesson time in the past, and not much guidance from teachers. Teachers are able to facilitate our learning more after full-day classes resumed," he added.

Lam Yim-ling, the principal of the school, said the vaccination rate among students from senior forms was higher than that for those in lower years.

Lam said they sent out questionnaires to parents at the beginning of the month asking for opinions on resuming full-day lessons, and the school is still gathering vaccination records from students in other forms.

Form six students at Heung To Secondary School in Tseung Kwan O will also resume whole day classes, on September 23.

The school's headmaster, Tang Fei, told RTHK that he hopes the arrangement will encourage more students from other forms to get jabs.

He said the school will adhere to strict anti-epidemic rules, including making sure students have lunch behind partitions.

According to government figures, as of September 3, 92 percent of teaching staff and 51 percent of students across the territory have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.