Beijing staggers school openings to prevent COVID-19
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E-mail Xinhua, August 11, 2020
Full reopening
Beijing has roughly a million students in primary and secondary schools. According to the official arrangement, senior high schools in Beijing will start the new semester on Aug. 29, while primary schools and junior high schools will start their new school year on three dates -- Aug. 29, Sept. 1, and Sept. 7.
Kindergartens in Beijing are to open on Sept. 8 and Sept. 11. Extracurricular training institutions can submit applications for resuming offline classes from Saturday.
Wang Xuechen, a mother of a four-year-old in Beijing's Fengtai District was very glad to hear the news of the reopening.
"I can hardly wait to send my daughter to the kindergarten. I hope she can return to a social life with other kids," Wang said.
"Since January, her kindergarten has collected and recorded all the children's health conditions and their travel information. The teachers are very responsible. I was told that the kindergarten is carrying out disinfection to prepare for the reopening. We feel rather assured."
Niu Zhenyun, Communist Party chief of Beijing Bayi School, said that most courses in the past semester were taken online. With the government notice, the school is making all the necessary plans.
"The notice provides specific COVID-19 prevention guidance for schools, which is crucial to prevent a resurgence of the epidemic. We also gained some experience last semester, when we arranged for three senior grades to study in class for over two months," said Li Mingxin, principal of Beijing Primary School.
The municipal authorities required extracurricular training institutions to submit applications to resume offline classes and collective activities after they meet prevention requirements.
Jin Jing, a trainer with an English language school in Beijing, said as soon as they heard the notice, the school board decided to launch a thorough disinfection of the indoor environment.
"Our students are mainly little kids who may be susceptible to viruses, so we need to be very careful," said Jin.
"We will try to limit the number of people in closed spaces. For example, we used to have seven classes in our two teaching areas. For the reopening, we will only allow one class to open in each area at the same time," Jin said.
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