Students Head To Classes, With Fear And Excitement

A section of school students returned to the classrooms on Wednesday morning, after a longer-than-usual summer break forced by the pandemic situation.

Many schools have been providing online lessons since the start of the new school year in August and September, but the Education Bureau has decided to lift a ban on face-to-face classes for some primary, secondary as well as kindergarten pupils as Covid cases in the city began to fall.

But school managements had implemented strict social distancing measures as pupils returned. In a Tuen Mun school, where a student had tested positive for the coronavirus last week, over 60 percent of the primary one, five and six class students returned to the class rooms.

Each pupil were given face shield and their desks separated with screens while hand sanitising and temperature checks were also done.

The principal of the school said test results of more than 60 faculty members were negative, and only two results were pending. They have been asked to stay in a special room and use video to teach students.

In a kindergarten in Fanling, an air disinfection machine was installed in the lobby, and a teacher personally recorded the body temperature and provided alcohol handrub for students returning to school. Students will be kept at a distance during class, and the desks are also separated by partitions.

One parent, surnamed Ho, said that the kindergarten’s epidemic prevention measures were good and they were not worried about sending kids back to the school.

The kindergarten also distributed pamphlets to parents explaining epidemic prevention and cleaning work done before the resumption of classes.

Many schools have been providing online lessons since the start of the new school year in August or September. But from today, face-to-face classes resume in stages depending on the year-group.

Primary one students were heading to their new schools and this added to the nervous excitement.

A mother of a six-year-old girl who was at the Tseung kwan O MTR station with her daughter said she was a bit nervous taking her daughter to school.

She said this is the first day for her daughter to start schooling at a primary school, and she's worried that her daughter may not adapt well.

She said despite her fears of another Covid-19 outbreak, she thinks it was a reasonable decision to allow students to go back to schools.

"As the saying goes, use extraordinary measures in extraordinary times. I think it is not unreasonable to allow students to go back to school," she said.

"Since my kid has been taking online lessons for too long, I wanted her to return to class. But on the other hand, I'm very worried about the virus situation. I just hope that schools take proper hygiene measures to prevent the spread of the virus," she said.

But a form five student, Alex, said he prefers taking online classes. He said he's worried about getting infected, adding that the government doesn't view protecting students health as a top priority.

"I am really afraid of going back to school as there are 30 people in a such a small area, it is very dangerous to stay in that area," he said. "I don't think the government should let us go back to school if they really care about us."

For the time being, schools are only allowed to hold half-day classes, and they are not encouraged to hold extra curricular activities for their students.

Schools are also required to enforce social distancing measures, such as spacing out the students' seats and making sure they maintain some distance with one another during lessons.

The Education Bureau has said that if any student or staff is confirmed to have the virus, the school will have to close for 14 days for thorough cleaning and the close contacts of the patient will have to be quarantined.