Schools Not Taking Chances As Classes Resume

Schools are putting in place special arrangements to prevent the spread of Covid-19 on campus as some of them resumed face-to-face classes on Tuesday after more than three months of suspension.

Ching Chin-cheung, headmaster of the Chinese YMCA Primary School in Yuen Long, said students have to record their self-test results daily.

“The pupils do the rapid tests at home, they get the results after 15 minutes and then parents will mark the negative test result on the student handbook," he told a Commercial Radio programme.

"We set up desks at the school gate, where four teachers would check the handbooks as children arrive at school."

Ching said parents have to sign the handbooks to confirm the test results, just like they do for daily temperature checks.

He said things had been smooth apart from a few pupils whose parents forgot to sign the handbook, and teachers had to call them up to confirm that their children had actually been tested.

The government had earlier announced that schools can resume classes in phases, and the honorary chairman of the Aided Primary School Heads Association, Cheung Yung-pong, said most schools should resume classes later this week, and they will probably allow older pupils to return first.

He says on an RTHK programme that teachers may help children do rapid Covid tests if they haven't done so at home.

But he called on parents to get the test done at home so that “precious class time” doesn’t have to be used on testing.

The school principal also said schools may test the students again if they show symptoms.

He added that some schools have stocked up rapid test kits and provided them to needy families.