Hong Kong principals want all pupils back in class and ‘stressful’ Covid-19 screening rule for staff scrapped, survey finds

Results come as Education Bureau says two-thirds of students can resume face-to-face classes after Easter

But principals say staff members are stressed over government’s rule they must be screened every two weeks

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Pupils leave school in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. Photo: Dickson Lee

Published: 9:24pm, 26 Mar 2021Updated: 12:04pm, 29 Mar 2021

A majority of school heads in Hong Kong say they hope to bring all students back to campus for half-day classes without requiring staff undergo Covid-19 testing as employees were “stressed” over the rule, a survey has found.

The Professional Teachers’ Union (PTU) released the poll on Friday as the Education Bureau announced that as many as two-thirds of a school’s student body could resume face-to-face classes after the Easter holiday in April.

Kindergartens, primary schools and secondary ones have allowed up to one-third of students to attend in-person classes on a half-day basis since the Lunar New Year holiday in February. Hong Kong has driven down the daily coronavirus cases into the low double digits on average, with just 11 cases logged on Friday. Health experts advising the government on the health crisis said the fourth Covid-19 wave which has plagued the city since last November was nearing its end.

Pupils at the Wellcome International Kindergarten at Tuen Mun resume face-to-face class after Lunar New Year in late February. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

PTU interviewed 124 school principals on Thursday, a day before the government’s latest announcement on class arrangements and 96.8 per cent of respondents back the idea of allowing more students to resume half-day in-person classes without compulsory tests for all staff. Among the overwhelming majority that supported the notion, 68.3 per cent hoped to bring back all students, while 15.8 per cent supported a two-thirds cap.

The survey also found that 82.3 per cent of respondents were “stressed” about the government’s existing policy of requiring all school employees to undergo regular Covid-19 tests in order to allow all students to return to campus.

PTU vice-president Tin Fong-chak urged the Education Bureau to review the policy on the basis of scientific evidence.

“Most of the previous outbreaks in local schools were linked to students but not staff. [The policy] has put schoolmasters and teachers into between a rock and a hard place,” Tin said.

Education authorities recently revealed that more than 900 schools – or about 40 per cent of the city’s total – had already or were planning to bring back all students to campus for half-days following fortnightly Covid-19 tests for staff.