'Teachers Can Manage Resumption Of Full-day Learning'

An educator on Thursday said he is confident that schools will be able to resume full-day classes in February, even though it would put some teachers under pressure.

The government had earlier announced that secondary schools will resume full-day in-person classes from February 1 – after the Lunar New Year holiday – while primary schools and kindergartens will do so from February 15.

Dion Chen, the chairman of the Direct Subsidy Scheme Schools Council, said the past three academic years were greatly disrupted by the pandemic, as he welcomed the move to further return to normality.

“In the past few years, [students] did not really have a normal social life... I hope that the resumption of the full-day face-to-face lesson could give them more time and opportunities to interact with others,” he told RTHK, adding that school staff will be able to cope with the upcoming change.

Chen said he believes secondary schools are ready to reopen, but noted that primary school staff will come under pressure.

“To secondary schools, we think that is not a big problem. [They] just need some time to explain to the parents about the new arrangement. For the primary schools, it takes a bit more time – first, they need to work with the lunch providers, the school bus providers and also the extracurricular instructors, and so forth. So they need more time to prepare for that.”

While Chen said it is necessary for school staff and pupils to undergo daily rapid antigen tests before going to school, he hoped authorities would do away with all pandemic measures by February or March.

But Mervyn Cheung from the Hong Kong Education Policy Concern Group said he is concerned about possible virus transmissions at schools after the government dropped quarantine for close contacts of infected people.

"If the students' family members become infected, some of them might have the risk of [being] close contacts, which can really transmit the virus. If they can go back to school and move around, the risk of transmission of the virus to schoolmates will pose a risk to the health situation of schools and classes," Cheung said.

"Whether or not such resumption of full-day operations can be met with sufficient vigilant control of the virus spreading at schools, I think that's the worry of parents and also the wider community."