'New School Suspension Policy Excessive, Confusing'

A head teachers’ group on Thursday slammed a new government policy encouraging schools to suspend classes if a handful of students fall ill, as confusing and unnecessary.

A wave of upper respiratory tract infections has been sweeping through local schools across the territory, prompting the government to suspend all in-person classes at kindergartens and day care centres for a fortnight until November 27.

And on Tuesday evening, the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) suddenly tightened up recommendations for primary and secondary schools as well, saying they are advised to shut down for at least one week if at least three students fall ill in the same class over a four-day period.

The CHP had said this would give time for students and staff to be tested for Covid-19 as a precaution.

Previously, schools had been directed to suspend only the affected classes – not the entire institution – for at least three days to give time for Covid tests.

Cheung Yung-pong, the honorary chairman of the Aided Primary School Heads Association, was directly affected by the abrupt change.

His school reported several URTI cases one day ahead of the policy shift, and he was left confused about what he was supposed to do.

Cheung told RTHK he only found out about the new recommendations from media reports, and had to repeatedly seek clarification from the CHP before deciding to suspend only the affected classes.

He said officials should have informed schools directly about the change, that he said was confusing and hard to follow.

Cheung also has reservations about what he said was the overly stringent criteria for suspension, saying three students with coughs and runny noses shouldn’t be enough to warrant the entire school to stop classes.

"This standard is super high... it’s a standard we’ve never seen before where the whole school needs to be shut if only three students on campus falls ill," he said.

Tai Tak-ching, the head of the Wan Chai District Headmasters' Conference, told the same RTHK programme that the new rule shouldn't apply to secondary schools, as most URTI outbreaks have affected kindergartens and primary schools.

He said lesson times for secondary pupils have already been greatly slashed and the situation is particularly hard for students in higher forms who are preparing for public exams.

Tai said said he hasn't been consulted by officials either.