Coronavirus: Hong Kong schools scrambling to find housing for cross-border pupils ahead of university entrance exams
- Head teachers at schools in New Territories want to set up study camps for more than 130 students who live in Shenzhen
- Exams take place over course of two months and mandatory quarantine means those living on the mainland cannot commute on a daily basis
Head teachers in Hong Kong are scrambling to find accommodation for more than 130 cross-border pupils who live in mainland China, but need to spend two months in the city taking the local public university entrance exams.
With a 14-day mandatory quarantine still in place because of the coronavirus epidemic, pupils living just across the border in Shenzhen are unable to commute on a daily basis, as was the norm before the outbreak.
Two associations representing head teachers in Tai Po and North district said they were trying to set up study camps in Hong Kong to accommodate those expecting to take the Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) exams, which begin on March 27, and end in May.
But for the first two weeks of their return, the principals said the government should provide quarantine facilities, as the pupils were mostly under 18 and could not afford to stay in hotels by themselves.
To contain the spread of the coronavirus, Hongkongers who return from the mainland are required to stay at home quarantined for 14 days.