Pandemic prevention top priority as local schools reopen for fall semester
Classrooms at Luwan No. 1 Central Primary School have been cleaned and disinfected to welcome back students on Thursday, when the new fall semester starts.
Schools in Shanghai are ready to welcome back students for the new fall semester that will start tomorrow.
Most of the schools, such as primary schools and kindergartens, have remained closed since mid-March due to a resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic and they are reopening with strict pandemic prevention measures in place.
At the Luwan No. 1 Central Primary School in downtown Huangpu District, first-graders usually have an opportunity to spend three days on campus before they officially start their studies, while their parents are also invited to the campus to get familiar with the school and teachers and have a glimpse into the campus life. Other students would also return to the campus one day before the new semester to fetch new textbooks and hand over vacation homework.
This year, the activities were cancelled to reduce the risk of cross-infections.
"All the students will come back on September 1," vice principal Xu Jihong said. "So we will finish class two hours earlier on the first two days, which are Thursday and Friday, to help them adapt to the school days gradually after a half-year departure from campus."
An area for students at the Luwan No. 1 Central Primary School to put their vacation homework to avoid cross-infections.
Also, from tomorrow, students and faculty will have to take nucleic acid tests on campus every school day. It will be the first time for primary schools and kindergartens to do so as middle and high schools have experienced it in June and July when graduating students returned to prepare for examinations.
The school has trained all its roughly 130 faculty members and carried out testing drills ahead of the new semester, according to Xu.
"We trained a small group first, but later expanded to all faulty in case some teachers are put under lockdown due to cases in their communities."
Xu said all students will take turns to receive the test after lunch under instructions. Teachers have printed out students' offline nucleic acid test codes and written down their identity numbers to ensure testing proceeds smoothly.
"Students will have lunch at 11:10am, 40 minutes earlier than usually, tomorrow as it will be the first time for us to carry out the testing for all of them," explained Xu. "We will see how much time it takes and adjust the arrangement accordingly in the following days."
On each desk is a pack of anti-pandemic items, such as masks and instant hand sanitizer.
Other local schools have taken similar measures.
Wuning Road Primary School in Putuo District has asked parents to print out children's offline nucleic acid test codes and put them around their necks so they can be scanned quickly when receiving the tests during class breaks or at noon. The school said more than 50 teachers have received training for test sampling.
At Chuncheng Campus of Minhang Experimental Primary School, more than 60 teachers have received training. The school has organized three drills in the past three days with faculty and students to optimize the process, said Zhang Jun, principal of the campus.
"It proceeded smoothly on Wednesday with students coming back to fetch new textbooks," she said. "It took 7 to 10 minutes for a class of some 40 students to finish the testing."
Students at Wuning Road Primary School will hang their nucleic acid testing codes around their necks when receiving the nucleic acid testing.
Parents are also busy cooperating with schools over their children's registration.
"I have taken my daughter to have two nucleic acid tests in three days and submitted the results to the head teacher, besides filling several tables for different purposes, such as health condition observation and school lunch registration," said Hu Yuehong, a mother of a fourth-grader in a primary school in Minhang District.
"The procedure for students to return to schools is more complicated than before, but finally, our children can go back to the campus to have classes with their classmates, which is the most important thing for me now."
