Daily checkups when schools open next week
Thursday, April 17, 2003
hongkong.scmp.com
POLLY HUI
Parents will have to take their children's temperature every day before sending them to school under stringent new measures to combat Sars when classes begin to resume next week.
They will also have to sign a form every day certifying that their children do not have fevers. The measures are among a series of precautions released to school heads today after yesterday's announcement by the Secretary for Education and Manpower, Arthur Li Kwok-cheung, that Form Three to Seven classes would resume on Tuesday.
Pupils in primary schools and Form One and Two will return on April 28, while kindergartens have been left to decide when to reopen themselves.
Schools in virus hotspots can also remain shut with the support of their school management committees and parents.
All schools have been shut since March 29 as an anti-Sars measure. Education and Manpower Bureau sources revealed the key daily requirements that children have their temperature tested before school, and that they be declared, in writing, free of fever by their parents.
Thousands of thermometers will be provided to schools to use in case students appear unwell in class. Schools will have to buy face masks for all staff and students and ensure that liquid soap and enough toilet paper is provided in lavatories. Chlorine tablets must be used to disinfect toilets.
Schools will be allowed to spend existing grants on anti-Sars products. They can also shorten school hours to allow students to go home for lunch and minimise the risk of them contracting the virus in restaurants.
Teachers who are not feeling well will be allowed to take sick leave without a doctor's letter.
A handbook of all the precautions - modelled on those issued by the Ministry of Education in Singapore - will be sent to schools tomorrow. It will also be uploaded on to the bureau's Web page.
Sources told the South China Morning Post that the bureau's original intention was to reopen all secondary schools next Tuesday, with primary schools and kindergartens resuming classes a week later. However, the deaths of nine Sars patients - including three women in their 30s - two days ago prompted officials to reconsider.
The decision reflected the views of many teachers and parents, who favoured reopening schools in stages. But some educators remain worried that secondary schools do not have enough time to implement all the precautions.
A source at the Education and Manpower Bureau said: "The bureau has taken public opinion very seriously this time. Before Tuesday, the majority of parents and schools favoured resuming classes next week. But [the bureau] is aware that there might be a change of views after seeing that the virus has started to strike down younger and healthier people."
Christopher Yu Wing-fai, chairman of the Joint Council of Parent-Teacher Associations of Sha Tin District, said many parents who last week wanted all classes to resume had wavered since the recent deaths. "I have received numerous calls from parents who were concerned whether it would be safe to put their kids back into school," he said.
Mr Yu said he supported a continued suspension for both primary schools and kindergartens.
"Small children do not know how to protect themselves," he said. |
