ONE or two pupils felled by the H1N1 flu and their class may be sent home for a week. More, and the whole school may be ordered shut.

This scenario might well be played out at various schools across the island over the next few months as part of the Education Ministry's approach to containing the spread of the H1N1 virus, which has infected 194 people here so far.

But Education Minister Ng Eng Hen has ruled out a full-scale shutdown of schools or delaying the start of the new school term which begins on Monday.

Instead, he called on parents and students to brace themselves for classes, entire levels or schools to be shut as community infections spread.

Part of its focused approach: Students returning from affected areas since June 22 must stay home for seven days. The affected areas include Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, Britain and the United States.

This means that a student returning from overseas today will be allowed back in school only on Thursday next week.

The question of school closures has engaged parents and students over the past week, even as teachers ready themselves to do home-based teaching via the Internet and through the post.

Primary and secondary schools were closed for more than a week during the Sars outbreak in 2003, but Dr Ng stressed on Tuesday that H1N1 is different from Sars.

Sars was virulent and short-lived, whereas the H1N1 virus will be around for much longer and infect more people worldwide.

Now, schools will contact them to verify where they went and make arrangements to attend lessons from home if necessary. Dr Ng estimates that about 2 per cent of all students and teachers would have been to overseas flu-stricken areas for their vacation.

Read the full story in Wednesday's edition of The Straits Times.

jessicaj@sph.com.sg