Reducing students' risk of contracting the disease Parents are only allowed to collect books from the school.

Reducing students' risk of contracting the disease Parents are only allowed to collect books from the school.

 

(Sing Tao Daily) About two weeks before the start of the school year, the epidemic continues to affect parents to buy textbooks and apply for school bus services. Many schools have arranged for booksellers to distribute books to schools, and stated that in order to reduce the gathering of people and protect students, only allow parents to return to the school to collect; the Chairman of the Association of School Buses, Mr. Lam Chi-ping, pointed out that due to the resumption of face-to-face classes indefinitely, the parents of the school bus service on a wait-and-see attitude, the number of enrolment compared to last year's big drop of 60%.

 

 

At the beginning of each school year, parents can choose to buy new books from bookstores, or hand in the book order form to the school collection box, to be collected when the bookseller delivers the books to the school. We have checked the school websites and found that many schools, such as CCC Kei Heep Secondary School in Wong Tai Sin and Shun Lee Catholic Secondary School in Kwun Tong, have stated in their circulars that only parents are allowed to return to the school on that day, which is different from the previous practice of allowing students to collect the books.

 

The CNEC Lau Wing Sang Secondary School in Chai Wan also has the same arrangement. Principal Lam Tat-ho pointed out that booksellers will come to the school tomorrow to distribute books, and five booths will be set up to divert the flow of people. "After arriving at the school, parents have to take their body temperature and register at the main gate first, and can only enter the venue after taking a number. He reminded that if parents could not come to the school on that day, they could collect the books from the bookstore afterwards or at the end of August when the booksellers replenish their stock.

 

 

As for primary schools, SKH Holy Spirit Primary School in Sha Tin does not recommend students to come back to school to collect the books to avoid increasing the risk of infection, and parents should collect the books from the school according to the students' grades and time slots. The Vice Principal, Mr Tin Siu-pun, pointed out that the staff of the school were equipped with baffles, all of them wore epidemic prevention masks and regularly disinfected the venue, and the new books would be individually packaged.

 

 

In addition, parents who are unable to take their children to and from school in person would apply for school bus service in advance in previous years to ensure that there are places available after the start of the school year. Chairman of the School Cars Association, Mr Lam Chi-ping, pointed out that, because of the persistence of the epidemic, the Education Bureau has not yet announced the specific arrangements for the start of the school year in September, including when face-to-face classes will resume, which has led to a wait-and-see attitude on the part of many parents who have not yet applied for the school bus service, "In the case of our company, for the time being, only 40 per cent of parents have applied for the use of school buses. We also hope that the authorities will provide subsidies to keep the industry in operation, so as to avoid the situation of "demand but no school buses" in the future.