Macau schools to reopen in phased approach next month

A high school junior in the Chinese city of Chongqing studies at home

The city’s non-tertiary schools will reopen no later than April 20, Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Ao Ieong U announced yesterday, after meeting with the city’s lawmakers to inform them of education-related matters during the coronavirus outbreak period.

At the current stage, the local government expects primary, secondary and high schools to resume in the beginning of April. Other schools will follow in a phased approach, according to the government’s plans.

Students in the final year of high school will resume on March 30. Lawmaker Zheng Anting reported to the media yesterday that this resumption is not mandatory, meaning that parents or students can still choose not to go to school.

Some lawmakers believe that the different levels of schooling should reopen at different times. According to Zheng, school resumption should not occur on the same date for all classes. Some lawmakers believe that decision to resume school should be delayed for younger students, with the conditions governing their return to school made stricter than for older students.

Each level will gradually resume activities, depending on the epidemic development. Once high schools resume work, students will follow the city’s health instructions, including sitting no less than one meter away from one another, wearing facemasks, completing health declaration forms and undergoing body temperature scans.

The government’s decision is based on the development of the epidemic in the mainland, especially in the nearby cities of Zhongshan and Zhuhai. According to the Secretary, these two cities have not recorded new Covid-19 cases for more than 20 consecutive days.

School resumption means that some students will travel from Zhongshan and Zhuhai to Macau to attend school. Ao Ieong urged students and teachers who are still in the mainland to return to Macau. These students and teachers are also required to go through 14 days of quarantine before heading back to school.

School reopening may still be postponed depending on the epidemic development.

There is no schedule to reopen universities as of now. Over 18,000 mainland students are enrolled in Macau’s university programs. Considering that these students are spread across different places in mainland China, the government has not yet decided when to reopen universities. Local universities have already launched online learning platforms for students, which means that the students’ study progress is less likely to be affected in comparison to non-tertiary level institutions.

The local government will announce the university resumption date with at least 14 days’ notice.

On the sidelines of yesterday’s meeting, lawmaker José Pereira Coutinho expressed disappointment over the government’s decision and highlighted several issues that had gone unaddressed.

He voiced particular concern about the supply of facemasks for children. Although, the government did not answer the lawmaker about facemask storage, Secretary Ao Ieong pledged that local government will have a sufficient supply of facemasks for students.

“We need to be very careful especially with underage children,” said Coutinho. “From the second and third phase of masks [supply], we already felt that the government has a bit of pressure in getting the masks [for children],” Coutinho said. “Children’s facemasks are very important; we must ensure that we have masks in all schools.”

Coutinho also raised concerns about the safety of students boarding busy public buses while commuting to school every day.