SED on class resumption and cross-boundary students
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Reporter: Has the Government taken into account that Hong Kong has a new local case (of COVID-19 infection)? Is there any update on exemption for cross-boundary students, how they might return to Hong Kong for their school learning, how they will be exempt from quarantine measures?
Secretary for Education: Is the case confirmed yet? I think it is reported. Well, they (the relevant departments) have not held any press conference today, so we are still waiting to see whether the case has been confirmed or not. But from the information we have, it is likely to be a confirmed case yesterday. Even though it is confirmed to be a case of the infection, I think at the current stage, the CHP (Centre for Health Protection) is still following up on the case. They will be following up on whether there have been any close contacts, the background and everything. So we have to wait to see the outcome of the investigation before we decide whether there will be any significant impact on our schedule for class resumption. So at this stage, we still maintain that the schedule for class resumption will stay the same.
Regarding your question about cross-boundary students (CBS), we are still discussing with our counterparts in the Mainland. And I had a discussion with some of the principals from the schools with more CBS yesterday. There are a number of issues that we have to resolve, including precautionary measures for CBS to come over to Hong Kong and then go back to Shenzhen. We have to look at the boundary control points and whether there are sufficient control points to make sure that the flow of students will be efficient enough for the class resumption. We are also looking at the transport arrangement because some of these boundary control points may not have sufficient public transport. So all these issues we are still discussing with different stakeholders and we are still formulating our strategies to take them forward.
Reporter: When will a decision be made?
Secretary for Education: I cannot name a date yet. We are working diligently to try to find out a workable solution, and in the course of doing that, we will continue to maintain dialogue with our counterparts in the Shenzhen Government, of course, and the school principals as well.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Wednesday, May 13, 2020
Issued at HKT 16:29
Issued at HKT 16:29
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