Schools must follow health protocols

The government on Sunday unveiled the details of its strategy to reopen schools, and we are happy that the decision to resume in-class educational activities after a long hiatus of nearly 18 months is now finalised. However, as we have previously stressed in this column, resuming in-class educational activities must also take into consideration the issues of health and safety of students, teachers and other school staff. In that regard, the government has included many variables in its reopening plan, and we hope it has done so with the utmost care.

But planning alone, while essential, is not enough—the matter of execution is even more important. And here the government must perform at its best. We must remember that although the government has previously given hints as to what the guidelines for schools reopening will be, the details have only been unveiled a matter of days before schools are scheduled to reopen. That means there is still a lot to be done, and in only a few days. It's naturally going to put a lot of pressure on all schools, while not every school is equally well-equipped to handle that. Thus the government has to provide every type of support that they will need in order to ensure that these schools are ready to provide the facilities needed to ensure the safety of all its attendees—such as funds for sanitising facilities, extra masks for students, teachers and other staff, etc.

Schools also have a responsibility to ensure that the health safety guidelines are strictly followed. It is natural for students to not always want to wear masks that are uncomfortable, or follow strict sanitising rules; it is up to the supervising staff to ensure that these guidelines are adhered to for their own well-being. Moreover, the schools themselves must make the necessary allocations and adjustments to ensure that students are able to maintain social distancing in classrooms, as recommended in the government's directive. In that regard, the government has also recommended that most students—except examinees of PECE, SSC and HSC—should attend classes only once a week for now, and the schools should properly plan the breakdown of which students should attend classes on which days.

As there are still plenty of uncertainties surrounding how well the reopening will work, the government's overall plan, as well as every school's individual plan, will require a certain degree of flexibility. At the end of the day, neither should lose sight of why schools are being reopened in the first place—for the benefit of the students—and as such, should have contingency plans for any future changes or developments in order to be able to respond swiftly and properly.

While reopening schools is an essential first step, the government must keep in mind the learning losses that have already occurred due to schools being closed for nearly one and a half years. Therefore, should the first phase of reopening prove to be a success, the government must have plans for a second phase in which to take steps to recover those losses. For that, the government should immediately begin consulting experts and start formulating further strategies.