Roll Call: Schools Slowly Begin Reopening Across China

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While parents and kids in Beijing eagerly await the news that they can return to schools, provinces across the country, as well as Inner Mongolia, have begun reopening their campuses to high school and middle school seniors, hoping to keep those students on track to graduate in a few months’ time.

To date, schools in Guizhou, Qinghai, Xinjiang, Yunnan, Shaanxi, Guangxi, and Inner Mongolia have reopened, or will be soon.

Given the mandatory 14-day quarantine period that’s been in place for a while now, some schools have been able to give their communities at least two weeks’ notice before classes resume. For instance, Guizhou Province announced on Feb 27 that high school seniors and middle school 9th graders would begin school on Mar 16, effectively giving staff and families 17 days to prepare.

Not all schools have given that amount of time though. Qinghai Province announced on Feb 28 that high school seniors would return on Mar 11, one day shy of the requisite 14-day period. Likewise, juniors started one day later, on Mar 12, and sophomores returned Mar 13, with middle school students’ return staggered throughout the following week.

The shortest notice was given to high school seniors and 9th graders in Xinjiang Province, who were told on Mar 11 that they would return to campus just five days later, on Mar 16. However given that at the time the announcement was made, the last new COVID-19 infection in Xinjiang had occurred on Feb 17, and the last hospitalized patient was released on Mar 8, it’s safe to assume that the virus was well-contained ahead of the school’s reopening.

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What’s more, two days after announcing that 9th and 12th graders would return to school, Xinjiang became the first province to announce the reopening of all grade levels, which will take place on Mar 23.

What’s clear is that all provinces are following the Ministry of Education’s guidelines to bring students back in stages, starting with older kids and gradually ushering in elementary and early years learners.

Unfortunately, some guidelines stipulate that international schools will be the second to last to resume, only behind universities, presumably because so many of those students are still overseas.

University students will be the very last to return to school, presumably because they too have so many students who are still overseas, who will need to live on campus once they return, and are more well-equipped to handle online learning than their younger counterparts.

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Photos: friendshipcircle.org, unsplash, giphy

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