Beijing sees 400,000 students back to school

Beijing: More than 400,000 students in Beijing on Monday returned to primary and middle schools as the COVID-19 epidemic continues to wane in the Chinese capital.

Due to the epidemic control, the spring semester originally slated for February was postponed. On Monday, over 1,000 primary and middle schools reopened.

In Beijing No.2 Experimental Primary School in the downtown, more than 670 students from 18 classes in the sixth grade attended a national flag-raising ceremony Monday morning.

“I have longed for celebrating International Children’s Day with my classmates. When I entered the classroom, I was excited to see a paper bag in everyone’s seat, which contained festival gifts for us,” said Guo Yiwei, a grade six student from Beijing Primary School.

On Monday, primary schools only allowed grade six students to return to school, while middle schools have seen all the students return.

You Na, deputy director of the Dongcheng District Education Commission of Beijing, said that according to the requirements of the Beijing municipal education commission, teachers and students in schools should wear face masks in class. Students can take off their masks in physical education classes while keeping a safe distance.
The fourth and fifth grades of primary schools are scheduled to return to school on June 8, and the first to third grades are expected to resume class later, said Li Yi, spokesperson of the municipal education commission.

Li said the municipal authorities have launched “safe campus” supervision. A total of 2,452 schools and kindergartens have passed the district-level “safe campus” supervision.

According to the requirements, all the students should have their body temperature measured upon entering campus, while schools follow the epidemic prevention measures preparing disinfection items.

Beijing activated the highest level of public health emergency response on Jan. 24 to contain the outbreak of the epidemic. It lowered the emergency response from the top level to the second level on April 30 after seeing no new confirmed local and imported COVID-19 cases for 13 consecutive days.