129 students, 17 school staff got Covid-19 in last 3 months; full HBL for affected schools only ‘in exceptional cases’

SINGAPORE — Schools remain safe places for learning, Education Minister Chan Chun Sing said on Friday (July 30) as he outlined the approach to managing Covid-19 sustainably, with individual schools moving to full home-based learning (HBL) only “in exceptional cases”.

In a Facebook post, Mr Chan said that he has received mixed feedback from some parents who want schools to move towards letting students study from home, as well as others who were against this idea.

His post came in the midst of an increase of Covid-19 cases in schools. There were 129 students and 17 school staff members who tested positive for Covid-19 in the last three months, which is equivalent to 0.03 per cent of the total school population, Mr Chan disclosed.

He wrote: “Singapore is unlikely to see zero community cases in the short term, and vaccination for younger children is currently unavailable. At the same time, we recognise the impact that full home-based learning has on all of us.”

When done on a prolonged basis, this approach has come “at a significant cost to our students’ learning, and socio-emotional and mental well-being”, he said.

In addition, not all students have conducive home environments for studies, he added.

During such periods, Mr Chan said that parents have had to “scramble” to make alternative care arrangements, which may not always be safer for their children.

Teachers are also having to juggle more demands of preparing and conducting online lessons while taking care of their families, he added.

“We all know that disruption to normalcy can cause fear, stress and despair, which has serious and real consequences in the long term. What then would be the sustainable solution going forward?” 

The Ministry of Education (MOE) will thus adopt “a targeted approach” to deal with Covid-19 cases in schools, he said.

This means that confirmed school cases of Covid-19 will be isolated and all those in close contact will be isolated through a leave of absence or a quarantine order.

“In exceptional cases where the situation is unclear, we may put the entire school on home-based learning to break any possible transmission as well as to give the Ministry of Health time to test and investigate thoroughly before reopening the school.” 

Schools have implemented stringent safe management measures to minimise transmission risks and have surveillance measures in place to detect potential positive cases as soon as possible, Mr Chan said.

The authorities will also ring-fence cases using leave of absences to keep potential cases out of schools.

As of Friday, there were 12 cases from the cluster at Punggol Primary School and all students there are having lessons from home as a precautionary measure.

So far, the authorities have not reported any evidence of school-based transmission.

“We will continue to monitor the situation closely and review if any adjustment is needed in line with national guidelines, especially as we transit towards managing Covid-19 as an endemic disease,” Mr Chan said.

In response to TODAY's queries, an MOE spokesperson said that as of July 30, almost all eligible students have registered for their vaccinations, of which over 90 per cent have received their first dose, and almost 70 per cent have taken their second dose.

TODAY has contacted MOE for further comment.