Proper preparations needed for schools reopening

I welcome the government’s announcement on the reopening of schools in stages but necessary steps and SOPs need to be properly implemented and enforced to allay the fears of parents and students and also to avoid a second wave of infections especially among the students and also teachers.

While the reopening of schools is important so the students especially those without proper Internet or gadgets do not get further left behind and also freeing parents to go back to work, it has to be done properly so that we can avoid any spread of the virus causing a second wave just like South Korea, France and some other countries.

With the introduction of “home-based” learning, many of our students here in Sarawak have been left out and this is not only limited to those in the rural areas, but also among the urban poor that cannot afford a proper computer or even TV and also lack the guidance and discipline to follow the materials prepared through this home-based model. The minister-in-charge of education in Sarawak once said that 50 percent of students do not have Internet access and this is a serious issue that needs to be addressed.

That is why I believe, even with this important announcement, the Ministry of Education should give clear and precise direction on all the necessary SOPs and what must be done if there is an outbreak in a school. With clearer instructions, there will generally be better compliance as we prepare not just the students and teachers of all the needed precautions, but also the parents.

A joint study from University College London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine on school reopening strategies has highly recommended that “large-scale population-wide testing of symptomatic individuals and effective tracing of their contacts, followed by isolation of symptomatic and diagnosed individuals” need to be in place to prevent a second wave as we reopen our schools.

The research said preventing a second wave would require 51 percent of all people with symptomatic infections to be tested, along with the tracing of two-fifths of their contacts, then isolating those that are symptomatic and diagnosed.

So I hope the Education Ministry and Ministry of Health have done all the necessary preparations, simulations and formulated the necessary precautions in our local context for any eventualities so that we are always prepared. This also has to be communicated to all including parents so they can also prepare their children before they go back to school.

The ministry should also engage with the Parent-Teacher Associations or school boards to get their input as to which model of reopening for each of the schools. The ministry introduced three main models of opening based on the size and density of each school but I believe input from the teachers, parents and also board members will be useful so that all stakeholders are included in this important decision.

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The writer, Kelvin Yii Lee Wuen is MP for Bandar Kuching. - Mkini