Beijing Schools Finally Set to Reopen April 27

After months of waiting and wondering when schools would reopen, the Beijing Municipal Education Commission finally announced today that high school seniors students will be able to return to school on Monday, April 27 with 9th grade students to follow on May 11. The reason that these grades have been selected to return to school first is due to the high school entrance exams in the Chinese public school system. How this will affect international schools whose middle school programs end at grade 8 has yet to be determined.

Although COVID-19 had begun to rear its head prior to Chinese New Year (CNY), no one could have anticipated the disruption it would cause to every facet of daily life, a disruption that reached deep into the start of the Spring 2020 semester.

Over the following weeks and months, more and more schools in provinces all over the country began opening their doors, albeit in batches by grade level. This was down to a directive issued by China’s Ministry of Education (MOE) on Feb 28 which said that schools should stagger their opening by grade level in an effort to minimize the risk of an outbreak in any one school.

As such, students in 9th and 12th grades have routinely started first, with other high school and middle school grades generally returning a week after, followed by elementary schools, kindergartens, and preschools. The last of which still hasn’t seen a return date in any of China’s territories. Likewise, in a similar directive, it was stated that colleges, universities, and after school training centers would be the last to reopen.

As each school prepared to welcome back students and staff, they were obliged to follow 25 guidelines laid out by the State Council’s Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism Against COVID-19 on Feb 25.

The guidelines required everything from setting up temporary isolation areas for anyone who shows COVID-19 symptoms to sanitation and ventilation protocols. This was in addition to the mandatory 14-day quarantine period all families and faculty had to abide by, as well as submitting daily health reports to supervising authorities in the lead up to the school’s reopening. And if anyone thought they’d be returning to school as they knew it, they were wrong, as large group activities were banned and lunch time had to be held in shifts to prevent crowds from gathering in the cafeterias and school yards.

While the news of Beijing’s youth returning to campus will be celebrated by students, parents, and teachers alike, the unfortunate reality is that many families and school personnel are still stuck overseas, unable to return due to border restrictions. Although this issue is yet to be addressed by the Municipal Education Commission, any return to onsite learning will have to take into account those who are unable to be physically present in the classroom.

At least one international school in Beijing has indicated they will continue to support online learning for the duration of the semester. When class does come back into session, they will most likely rearrange classes into in-person and online sections, and use substitutes where necessary.

Either way, however, the knowledge that life in Beijing — as we know and love it — is somewhere to be found on the not-so-distant horizon is enough to give everyone a much-needed sigh of relief.

Souce:Beijing Municipal Education Commission
Photos: thechildrenstrust.org