With classes set to resume, Hong Kong’s 27,000 cross-border pupils face commuting problems over quarantine rules

While the city’s authorities have exempted the pupils from a 14-day mandatory quarantine period, their Shenzhen counterparts have yet to do so

Education Secretary Kevin Yeung says he cannot promise that the issue could be resolved by May 27

Reading Time:3 minutes

Cross-border students are still waiting for confirmation whether they can return to their schools in the city. Photo: Dickson Lee

Published: 7:28pm, 8 May 2020Updated: 11:32pm, 8 May 2020

The fate of some 27,000 Hong Kong cross-border pupils living in mainland China was in limbo, as the education minister said on Friday that it could not be guaranteed whether they would be exempted from quarantine rules amid the coronavirus pandemic when classes resumed in late May.

Although Hong Kong’s government last week decided to exempt these cross-border students from a 14-day mandatory quarantine period when entering the city, a similar rule had so far not been lifted by the Shenzhen authorities.

That means even if they could enter Hong Kong without undergoing quarantine, the students would be required to do so upon returning to their home on the mainland and therefore would not be able to return to school in the city the next day.

Education Secretary Kevin Yeung says the problem is ‘a complicated one’. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

During a Legislative Council meeting on Friday, Secretary for Education Kevin Yeung Yun-hung was pressed by lawmakers on whether the issue could be resolved by May 27 when senior secondary students started to return to campuses.

Yeung said the issue was “a complicated one” because it involved not only the Hong Kong government but also its mainland counterparts.