Single desks for students urged as schools to reopen

A teacher undertakes body temperature check at the entrance of the school. Southcn.com

Local schools, where conditions permit, should provide individual desks for students and be prohibited from organizing group activities and student exchange activities to ward off cross-infections.

It is among a series of preventive measures announced by the Shenzhen Municipal Education Bureau on Wednesday to ensure student safety and prevent secondary outbreaks of COVID-19 as local schools will begin to gradually reopen starting April 27.

Students are required to wear masks in classes and during their breaks and to keep distance from others. Students are not allowed to go to off-campus daycare education nurseries for noon break and encouraged to eat at home.

When dining in school cafeterias, students should only take off masks when they are eating and wash their hands before eating.

Additionally, talking is not allowed in cafeterias. Different times will be arranged for students to dine in cafeterias.

Boarding students should ventilate their dormitories at least three times a day, for at least 30 minutes each time.

Garbage should be cleaned up promptly. Boarding students will have their temperatures checked every morning. Should any student exhibit any symptoms such as a cough or fever, they are required to notify their teachers immediately.

Students should file a health report through the “深i您” app two days before they return to schools. All people entering the campus should have their body temperatures checked. Schools are required to ventilate classrooms at least three times a day, each for at least 30 minutes.

Central air conditioning use is forbidden amid the outbreak. Schools should supply sufficient virus prevention materials. Special trash bins should be set up in restrooms to collect used face masks.

Teachers should also take care of their students’ psychological health and wash their hands before distributing materials to students.

Although the epidemic is waning in China, increasing global cases pose a considerable uncertainty.

Under these circumstances, most provinces have only partly resumed schooling, and with great caution, and other provinces are still reluctant to arrange reopening schedules.

In Guangdong, students in their final year at junior high and senior high schools are scheduled to return to school April 27. Primary school and other high school students will go back to school gradually after May 11.

The time for the resumption of kindergartens and special education schools will be determined at a later date.

Students in their final year at colleges and universities will return to school after May 11, after their schools prove they are fully prepared for epidemic control. Other college and vocational school students will follow suit gradually after May 18.