Kindergartens welcome kids back to school

A student with Chunyuan Kindergarten in Luohu District takes a nucleic acid test on campus today. Southern Metropolis Daily

There was excitement in the air as many kindergartens across Shenzhen greeted their students yesterday following their closure due to the city’s recent wave of COVID-19 cases.

Over 200 students, teachers and faculty staffers returned to the Kindergarten Affiliated to Meiyuan Primary School in Futian District yesterday amid strict COVID measures.

The kindergarten formed a whitelist to manage its personnel for safety. Those who are not on the list are not allowed to enter the campus.

“Deliverymen who are responsible for transporting food ingredients to us are also not allowed to enter the campus. Instead, they unload goods at a designated site. We then conduct thorough disinfections and let the stuff stay at the place for 30 minutes before moving it inside,” said Lyu Yuan, principal of the kindergarten.

At present, students are required to take daily COVID tests on campus. Some teachers from the kindergarten joined the frontline forces against COVID in February. Lyu told Shenzhen Daily that their experience helped the tests go smoothly and efficiently. It took less than an hour to complete tests for all students and staffers.

The kindergarten also designed three versions of the first class featuring anti-pandemic education on the first day back in school for different grades and organized activities to help kids experience a smooth transition to in-person learning.

With COVID safety measures in place, current attendance rate at Nanshan Government Agency Kindergarten stood at around 91%. “Kids are happy to return to school and our campus has been full of joy since the students came back Friday,” said Liu Hongli, principal of Nanshan Government Agency Kindergarten.

Kindergarten students from Huitong School & Studios (Huitong School) in Nanshan District also returned to school Friday.

The school followed the city’s requirements including checking students’ health information and body temperatures three times a day and arranging daily COVID tests to ensure campus safety.

The school’s 57 expat teachers were also back to campus for face-to-face teaching by following the school’s COVID rules.

“My kid is extremely excited to see classmates and teachers. I am assured when seeing the school delivering careful checks and disinfections at the entrance,” said a parent of a kindergarten student surnamed Wang.

In-person learning had been suspended for almost 90 days at Huitong School due to the pandemic, which brought some operational challenges to the school.

The school said they appreciated the government’s efforts to help cut rents for private kindergartens and hoped that related authorities could facilitate the process and offer guidance on students’ tuition fees. School officials said during the recent COVID resurgence, teachers at the kindergarten were prohibited from delivering online classes to their students.