In the middle of the previous week, many schools in HCMC held parent-teacher video conferences to announce necessary tasks to prepare for their children back to school.
Principal of Lac Hong Junior High School (sited in District 10) shared that his school has already organized question-answer sessions for parents of 7th and 8th graders to explain in details the school’s preparations tasks and requirements for students for offline learning in order to minimize the possibility of Covid-19 spreading here.
The timetables are still maintained like online mode to avoid unnecessary disturbance to both teachers and students. More staff is assigned for temperature checking and learner monitoring compared to the previous two weeks. Along with that are the rearrangement of on-site traffic flow and 15-minute intervals between each grade to ensure safe distance among students.
Principal of Tan Binh Junior High School (located in Tan Binh District) said that from January 1, learners of grade 7, 8, and 9 sit their first semester examination, so there is one week left for lesson revision. Therefore, students will have offline learning from January 4-8, 4 periods per day with suitable intervals for each grade also to ensure safe distance.
More school staff is assigned to have students’ temperature checked and to monitor their activities during break time, school leaving time. Teachers are advised to rest in class in break time to help oversee students there.
Moreover, each class has a fixed sitting arrangement for ease of tracking close contact in case of F0 detection. If a teacher becomes an F0, learners in that class will come to the auditorium for online learning with the infected teacher delivering lesson at home via the Internet.
Vice Principal of Vo Van Kiet Senior High School (sited in District 8) also reported similar preparation tasks to the above schools. On the first day back to school, all students are once more trained on appropriate behaviors for offline learning. Large rooms like auditoriums and meeting rooms are used to ensure students keep a safe distance from their classmates.
Head of the Office of Political Thinking Trinh Duy Trong (under the HCMC Education and Training Department) informed that after three weeks welcoming 12th and 9th graders back to school, everything is still under control and no cross infection happens despite F0 cases being detected.
When 7th, 8th, 10th and 11th graders are allowed back to school, the workload will be heavier and more staff is needed to perform Covid-19 prevention and control tasks. Therefore, all educational institutes are reminded to have logical employee assignments to avoid congestion in front of schools at all cost.
In addition, it is critical for schools to help their students form suitable medical habits (observing 5K rules and declaring health status) to fight against Covid-19. Online and offline teaching modes are advised to be used interchangeably to ensure necessary knowledge are taught effectively and to make children picking-up more convenient for parents.
