By Minhee Ho

From overwhelmed hospitals to stock market crashes to deserted streets, COVID-19 has had a dramatic impact on all aspects of life. As students, one of the areas in which we’ve first-hand experienced this is education. 

Ever since the start of this year, schools have begun closing their doors and transitioning to online lessons in efforts to stunt virus transmission. 

However, in certain areas, a gradual but steady decrease in case numbers has indicated the time for loosening of social distancing measures and the slow return to normalcy. During a news conference on May 5th, Hong Kong Chief-Executive Carrie Lam announced, “We are now at the stage of lifting, as we have not had local cases for sixteen days already and the number of imported cases is very low.” The government has begun to reopen several public entertainment venues, including bars, fitness centres, mahjong parlours, arcades, beauty salons, and cinemas, permitting gatherings of up to eight people. 

But now, we come to the question: what about schools?

Lam recently announced that international schools will be permitted to start by May 20th. Assuming all goes as planned, students will be returning to Renaissance College in three phases, beginning with the older year levels and moving down with each stage. The school leadership team is currently investigating what procedures will be added in order to maximize student and staff safety. 

According to Head of Secondary Natasha Williams, “It is likely that the following measures will be in place: temperature checking on arrival, face masks to be worn at all times, all desks in rows front-facing. We are also looking carefully at lunch arrangements to ensure students are spaced out: for example, we are looking into the possibility of using the PAC at lunchtime for this purpose. Mr Hureau and the Blue Team have been into the classrooms to set them up according to social distancing. We will likely be using the screens seen in the attached picture to divide student desks.”

At the moment, the school awaits guidance from the Hong Kong Centre for Health Protection (CHP) and Education Bureau (EBD) on school opening procedures. Until then, nothing can be finalised, and the ideas listed above are only the current plans, which will most likely be adjusted when full regulations are released. 

As stated by a Renaissance College secondary teacher, “A lot of things are still up in the air. We don’t know whether or not it will be half days or full days, or how classroom cleaning will fit into the timetable.” 

The uncertainty of the situation has led to some very mixed reactions amongst students and parents. A Year 9 student was quoted saying, “Personally, I feel that the school shouldn't open this year because we need to take extra safety measures. Even though we haven't really had many cases in HK, we should still take precautions because anything can happen anytime now.” Other pupils have expressed a more positive reaction towards school opening, saying that they are happy to return to “normal life” and reunite with friends.

Hong Kong isn’t the only region opening schools. Germany, Israel, Norway, Denmark, Japan, Taiwan, and other relatively low-risk areas have also begun, or are in the process, of bringing pupils back into classrooms, and have so far had successful outcomes. In Germany, similar to what our school is planning, classrooms have been arranged to give each student extra space, with strict sanitary measures to limit infection. In Denmark, students and staff have each been assigned separate school entrances in order to avoid crowds and bottlenecks, and classes have been divided into smaller groups with different rooms and teachers. In Eastern China, students wear three-feet-diameter hats to remind them of social distancing guidelines, and in Beijing, schools have begun using phone app questionnaires to gauge risk of infection. In Taiwan, pupils must sanitize their shoes every morning before entering and wash their hands prior to each class. In Israel, any form of direct or indirect physical contact (e.g. sharing books and stationery) is not permitted and parents must sign forms confirming their child is virus-free. 

However, it is important to note that though Hong Kong’s current case numbers appear to be stabilizing, this doesn’t guarantee safety or mean that they won’t peak in the future. To maintain this low figure, it will be necessary to stay alert and take a patient, methodical approach rather than rushing back into routine, as appealing as the idea may seem. Although it is quite likely the majority of Hong Kong students will be returning to school by June, in such an unstable time, it is impossible to determine the future with complete accuracy. Whether students end up learning by computer or classroom, the best approach will be to stay vigilant and make do with what we have.