Schools to stay open; no school-based transmission

Schools will stay open in spite of the current spike in Covid-19 cases, said Finance Minister Lawrence Wong yesterday. He added that there have been no school-based transmissions linked to the recent infections.

Mr Wong, who co-chairs the task force tackling Covid-19, said: "When it comes to schools, we do have in place a whole series of very stringent protocols and safe management measures in order to minimise interactions in the classrooms and ensure that there is no transmission within the school system.

"And that's why, for the most part of this pandemic, we have been able to keep schools open, ensure that learning continues safely, not just for our students, but also for all our educators."

He was responding to a question from the media, during a press conference by the task force, about whether schools will be shut down.

Mr Wong, who was education minister from July last year to May this year, noted many places worldwide have ended up closing schools for extended periods of time. He said: "Many studies now have shown that these extended school closures do have an impact on learning, it has an impact on students."

He said the impact of school closures can be long-lasting, and may even lead to permanent scarring when it comes to learning and the development of human capital. Hence, the Government has tried very hard to avoid this scenario.

Mr Wong added that the students who have caught the virus so far were infected by their family members and not in schools.

Thus, based on the current assessment, Singapore will still keep its schools open at the present stage, said Mr Wong.

MOE said yesterday evening that schools will remain open so as to minimise the impact on learning, but there will be extra safe management measures to curb the risk of Covid-19 transmission.

All in person co-curricular activities (CCA) and non-essential enrichment in schools will be suspended until further notice.

In addition, schools will only conduct individual mask-off activities in outdoor or well-ventilated venues for physical education classes, said MOE.

Mask-off music and drama classes will be suspended, and centre-based classes will be conducted online for all non-graduating cohorts.

External activities such as external CCAs and learning journeys will remain suspended.

School-based activities and after-school care arrangements will continue, subject to the tightened safe management measures.

MOE also said that mask-on in-person tuition and enrichment classes are permitted, but it strongly encourages that such classes be conducted online.

However, in-person private tuition and enrichment classes that involve mask-off activities would not be allowed during phase two (heightened alert).