Tuen Mun School Should Have Suspended Classes: PTU

The president of the Professional Teachers' Union, Fung Wai-wah, said authorities should have considered suspending classes at a Tuen Mun primary school at the centre of a Covid-19 scare and said he was a bit surprised at how authorities handled the case.

"In the past according to guidelines, they should suspend class," Fung told RTHK's Hong Kong Today programme.

A 10-year-old girl was among a group of pupils with special needs who was allowed to return to school before the first phase of face-to-face classes resumes on Wednesday. She was last at the school on Friday before she fell ill the next day and tested positive for coronavirus.

Fung pointed out that this happened before the resumption of classes.

"But, of course, for this case, the Education Bureau can argue that 'if they are having normal classes and this happened at that moment, they should suspend classes'. But right now this student has just returned to school because maybe [there's] no one to take care of her or because of the hardware problems she has to return to school to take the online classes. So I think the situation is a bit different," Fung said.

"If it happened in a normal class situation, they have clear guidelines. But for this one, because it happened when classes are still suspended, I think the situation has to be more flexible.

"I think suspending classes is one of the options."

The head of the Tuen Mun school said authorities have told them not to delay the partial resumption of face-to-face classes.

FDBWA Chow Chin Yau School principal, Shum Yiu-kwong, said that his school had been thinking about delaying the resumption of face-to-face classes by two weeks after the 10-year-old pupil was a confirmed coronavirus patient.

But he told a radio programme that the Education Bureau told them to press ahead with the re-opening as planned on Wednesday, because no one was considered a close contact and there was no need to shut the school for two weeks.

The Centre for Health Protection said that no staff or students would be considered close contacts because the classes were held in the school auditorium, that it wasn't risky because the school has been thoroughly cleaned and disinfected, and because most students have not returned to school yet.

Shum said that letters will be sent to all parents asking them if they will send their children to school on Wednesday, when the first round of face-to-face classes resume.

He said due to concerns raised by parents and staff, the CHP has decided to give about 120 sample bottles to staff and students for Covid-19 testing.