More than a third of Hong Kong teachers polled favour extending class suspensions beyond Easter break, while educators point to rising number of coronavirus cases
- Some 40 per cent say their schools plan to shorten the summer break to make up for lost time
- Union leader says unlikely that first batch of students can resume classes on April 20, given health concerns of parents amid infections
More than a third of Hong Kong teachers in a survey favoured extending class suspensions beyond the Easter holiday, while 40 per cent of them said their schools planned to shorten the summer break to make up for lost time amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The poll results, released on Thursday by the 35,000-member Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers (HKFEW), involved 625 kindergarten, primary and secondary school teachers. The government is expected by the end of the month to announce its decision on when classes should resume.
Some 900,000 students have been staying home, most with online learning in place, since classes were cut after the Lunar New Year holiday on February 3, as Covid-19 gripped the city.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor earlier said school would not resume fully before April 20.
More than 80 per cent of teachers in the survey said their schools did not have enough masks to resume operations, and about 36 per cent supported the idea of extending the suspension beyond the Easter break, which is from April 10 to 13.
