- With classes unlikely to resume any time soon, working parents will continue to shoulder extra burdens, but city must avoid adding to rise in infections
The worst fears of many Hong Kong parents of school-age children have been realised. Classes are unlikely to resume any time soon. It cannot have come as a surprise to many that schools will probably not reopen as scheduled on April 20. The global spread of the new coronavirus, including a second wave of infections making its way into Hong Kong from abroad, made that inevitable.
But parents' deep dismay is understandable on several counts. They include the disruption of normal family life, the logistical challenge of maintaining alternative arrangements that are no substitute for a stable home-school balance, and concerns about the impact on their children's education. Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor's admission that recent developments make it impossible to meet the April 20 target has redefined education issues.
Questions such as whether the government could ensure schools were supplied with enough masks have been overtaken.
Virus fears have students planning to resit exams they have not taken yet
Parents and teachers now have a legitimate claim for support amid economic distress alongside businesses and other workers. The education authorities need to unveil measures to help parents who find themselves with a disproportionate and open-ended share of responsibility for maintaining a functional childcare and home-learning environment. Employers need to be prepared to make life easier or more amenable for working parents with child-friendly initiatives.
It may be argued that committed parents eventually get used to shouldering extra burdens. But these responsibilities are not to be underestimated. For working parents, for example, it can add hours to the day in drop-offs and pick-ups from the homes of relatives, friends or fellow parents.
Given the prolonged upending of a home-school regime, and that infected children mostly suffer mild symptoms, and other infected countries have not been so quick to close schools, anyone may be forgiven for questioning the need to virtually rule out a scheduled return to classrooms more than a month ahead. But with Hong Kong having escaped the worst of the pandemic, the fact infected children might slip under the radar and infect others, and that there is evidence they may continue hosting the virus longer than infected adults, mean it is not a risk to be taken lightly.
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