“When are the kids going back to school?”
You’ve asked it, we’ve asked it, heck, parents have been talking about this since the schools went online again. This year’s Chinese New Year starts on Jan 22 and we’re already less than a month away. Many of us assumed that there wouldn’t be any chance of our kids returning to campus again until after Chinese New Year.
The Beijing Education Committee has yet to make any formal announcement as to when international schools may resume, but since Covid management will be reclassified into Category B on Jan 8, officially moving it down on the level of seriousness of diseases in China, many have seen this as a positive sign that school restrictions may soon be lifted.
Examples of diseases in each category:
Category A: plague, cholera
Category B: AIDS, rabies, measles, epidemic hemorrhagic fever, epidemic cerebrospinal meningitis, epidemic encephalitis B
Category C: influenza, mumps
Beijing City International School (BCIS) has already emailed their students’ parents with a warm holiday greeting from the head of school and the highly anticipated news that they’re “eagerly looking forward to returning to school on Tuesday, 3 January and will share more information with [parents]next week.”
International School of Beijing (ISB), Dulwich College Beijing (DCB), and Western Academy of Beijing (WAB) have also contacted their students’ parents with the announcement that they plan on resuming on-campus classes on Jan 2. The schools have not received any confirmed information from authorities, and the decision to return to campus is based on the new measure released by the Ministry of Education stating that schools without an outbreak of Covid-19 should have normal on-campus learning.
The schools are still awaiting the exact campus entry requirements and will share them with parents as they receive them. While there is still a chance that schools will be asked to stay online in the coming days, without a clear directive many schools will continue to open on campus as planned.
A WeChat post sent by the Beijing Education Committee on Dec 29 listed the prevention and control guidelines for schools, including implementing a “daily report” and “zero report” system and taking measures to monitor the symptoms of those on campus. Anyone with a fever, dry cough, fatigue, and sore throat will not be allowed on campus. It also goes on to stress the importance of ventilation and thorough disinfection as well as taking timely measures to reduce interpersonal contact.
One slightly vague point in the post says the following [from Google Translate]: “After the outbreak of the epidemic in the school, measures such as reducing interpersonal contact, strengthening personal protection, implementing online teaching in primary and secondary schools, and temporarily closing preschool education institutions in a short period of time shall be taken in a timely manner.”
学校内发生疫情后，及时采取减少人际接触、强化个人防护、短期内实施中小学校线上教学、学前教育机构临时关停等措施。
The comment does not state the severity of Covid cases on campus but leaves room for interpretation that, although Covid restrictions have loosened overall, schools may continue to experience similar online learning days as in previous years.
Images: Pexels
