All Schools in BJ to Close In-Person Classes Starting Today

Advertisement

All schools in Beijing, including international schools and training centers, are to close all in-person classes from this afternoon onwards, according to announcements yesterday from the Beijing Education Commission.

Despite the Chinese New Year holiday being right around the corner, the commission made the move to cut in-person classes short after an entire school in Daxing District was quarantined earlier this week when they found one asymptomatic 9-year-old who attended classes there.

To make matters worse, after conducting preliminary genetic sequencing, authorities suspect that the strain in Daxing is related to a strain of COVID-19 considered more contagious that has been circulating around Europe.

Initially, the directive was only for kindergartens but was subsequently extended to all grades out of an abundance of caution. And in a meeting with the city’s international schools yesterday morning, the commission made it clear that the policy applies to their institutions as well.

Advertisement

Incidentally, all but the upper grades of Beijing’s public schools were already due to go on break for the Chinese New Year holiday today.

It’s still unclear when schools will be able to resume on-site learning but some people close to school administrations suspect that it will likely be sometime after the Chinese New Year vacation ends in mid-February.

The move does not come as a surprise to those attending public schools, as they were already under direction to close earlier than their normally scheduled Chinese New Year holiday. However, at international schools – which generally follow an abbreviated, one or two weeks for their Chinese New Year break – many parents, teachers, and administrators were thrown for a loop.

Having dealt with online classes for the better half of last year, most schools have since developed contingency plans, knowing that they could be relegated to online learning at any time.

---

Advertisement

Photo: Pexels

Hot Topics This Week