Letters | Fully reopen Hong Kong schools: the evidence supports it

Name: Covid-19: Hong Kong’s needy pupils sidelined by online learning one year since class suspension
Uploaded: 2021-02-18T22:35:12.000Z
Duration: 5 min 39 s
Description: Covid-19: Hong Kong’s needy pupils sidelined by online learning one year since class suspension

The Education Bureau’s new policy of testing all teachers and staff for Covid-19 every two weeks to let all students return to school is not realistic

If the purpose is to ensure no one on campus has Covid-19, schools are in an impossible position, as all students, parents and helpers must then do the same

Reading Time:2 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

A young Hong Kong student makes his way to school in the early morning in Wan Chai on November 30, 2020. All face-to-face classes were suspended from December 2 due to a worsening fourth wave of Covid-19 in the city. Photo: Nora Tam

Letters

Published: 6:35am, 19 Feb 2021Updated: 6:35am, 19 Feb 2021

As a parent, educator and researcher, I believe Hong Kong’s Education Bureau should review its policy on school reopening procedures to allow children to go back to normal, face-to-face learning on campus in the company of their teachers and friends as soon as possible.

Studies around the world have reported that the effects of Covid-19 infection in children are less severe. It is actually the impact of the pandemic and social distancing on children’s social emotional development and mental health that is more worrying.

A systematic review of more than 80 studies involving 51,576 children and young adults reported that social isolation and loneliness increased the risk of depression and anxiety in children with moderate to large effect sizes. Specifically, duration of loneliness predicted mental health symptoms more strongly than the intensity of loneliness.

Juggling the twin pressures of working from home and child care during prolonged school closures, parents also report experiencing elevated stress levels, as almost every parent can personally testify. Based on this evidence, it is in the best interests of families and children to fully reopen schools as soon as possible.

The Education Bureau’s recent policy allowing one-third of a school’s capacity to return to campus on a half-day basis has been welcomed by parents. However, while it is understandable that the bureau has public health and students’ well-being in mind, requesting all teachers and staff to undergo voluntary Covid-19 testing every two weeks to allow all pupils to return to school is not realistic.

The policy is self-contradictory. If all teachers and staff need to go through testing to fully reopen campuses, it is no longer voluntary. Teachers and staff should not be singled out and targeted in this situation, either, since they are not the only people on the premises.

05:39

Covid-19: Hong Kong’s needy pupils sidelined by online learning one year since class suspension

If the purpose is to ensure everyone on campus is Covid-free, then all the students, parents and helpers need to do the same. The policy as declared puts schools in an impossible position.