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The Secretary for Education and Manpower, Professor Arthur K C Li, announced today (April 24) that junior secondary levels would resume classes on April 28. Primary schools, special schools, kindergartens and day child care centres would resume classes later.
"Last week, I announced that all schools would resume classes in stages. In the first stage, the great majority of students at Secondary Three and above had resumed classes on April 22 as scheduled and the situation was on the whole satisfactory," Professor Li said.
"To facilitate the full resumption of classes in secondary schools, the Education and Manpower Bureau will further strengthen its support and publicity by issuing additional guidelines, supplying more resources and providing up-to-date information."
Professor Li expressed special thanks to a number of institutions and community members for providing resources to prevent the spread of atypical pneumonia on school premises.
Among them is the Hong Kong Jockey Club which will donate $100 million to secondary, primary and special schools to hire cleaners and buy materials. Others include Mr Richard Li Tzar-kai who will provide students with Vitamin C tablets to enhance their resistance to infection as well as Gold Peak Industries (Holdings) Limited and Mr Kenneth Ting Woo-shou that will offer a large quantity of ear thermometer batteries and probe covers.
Professor Li said that if all sectors of the community were on high alert and strictly implemented all the preventive measures, the risk of infection on school premises would be minimised.
The new guidelines issued by the Bureau, with recommendations on school time-table as well as lunch and examination arrangements, will be uploaded onto its homepage today. To facilitate cleaning and disinfection and to enable students to have sufficient time for hand-washing, schools are advised to consider adjusting their time-table. They could adjust their class periods, such as extending the lunch hour, allowing students to have lunch in batches or switching from whole-day to half-day attendance.
As for mid-term tests and examinations, schools should consider replacing them with formative assessment and grading students in accordance with their learning performance. However, whether final examinations should be held should depend on the development of atypical pneumonia.
The Bureau started to provide each secondary school with two more ear thermometers and additional probe covers yesterday as stocks arrived. Primary schools and special schools will be given the items from tomorrow.
In terms of publicity, apart from the leaflets and posters produced earlier, the Bureau has stepped up producing Announcements of Public Interest and leaflets to prepare parents and students for class resumption by educating them to wear face masks, have their temperature taken, pay heed to personal hygiene and wash their hands frequently.
From April 22, a bulletin - Prevention of the Spreading of Atypical Pneumonia in Schools - has been uploaded onto the bureau's homepage (http://www.emb.gov.hk) on a daily basis, providing the latest information and prompt responses to concerns expressed by various sectors. Should schools have any queries or need further support, they can call their respective District School Development Sections or call the Bureau's hotline on 2892 2352.
The Social Welfare Department (SWD) also announced that all day child care centres, including nurseries, day creches and special child care centres, will have classes further suspended. However, all centres will remain open for those in need of care.
The Bureau and SWD will closely monitor the development of atypical pneumonia so as to determine the class resumption arrangements for primary schools, special schools and kindergartens. Announcements will be made later.
Since primary schools will continue to suspend classes and most of them have not yet conducted their Primary Six (P6) final examination, the Bureau has decided to cancel the requirements for submitting P6 internal assessment results for the second half of the school year. Thus the banding of individual P6 students in their respective school nets will be determined by the scaled internal assessment results obtained in the second half of Primary Five and the first half of P6. Those schools which have conducted their P6 final examination may contact the School Places Allocation Section for separate arrangements. The Bureau will issue a school circular to announce details.
All primary schools should hand back Secondary One Choice of Schools Forms by May 23 and results of the Secondary School Places Allocation will be released on July 15.
End/Thursday, April 24, 2003
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