Coronavirus: demise of school socialising, behaviour to be regimented

Parents of secondary school students, and the children’s parliament on Sunday issued Sunday a health and safety guide for pupils ahead of their return to school starting from Monday.

The guide concerns observance of the rules of hygiene on the occasion of the return on Monday of final-year students to high schools. Younger pupils are set to return to school on May 21, in a move that is a concern to many parents and teachers.

The parents, and the children’s parliament, in their write statement on Sunday, call on the children to “continue to show the same consistency and responsibility they have shown recently in the face of the pandemic in order to protect themselves, their families, the people they love and who love them.”

This will entail dropping many of the things that made going to school fun, gathering in groups with friends, sharing things and being carefree.

The children are being asked to go straight to their classrooms, disinfect their hands with antiseptic, stay sitting at the desks designated to them, and clean them and their computer keyboards, and follow the instructions prepared by school management.

They are being asked to keep prescribed distances from classmates and teachers, no shaking hands or hugging each other. The use of masks and gloves during break is optional but they do offer additional protection, the guide said.

The children are also being asked to clean their mobile phones with antiseptic wipes regularly or after each use, and are asked “not to borrow pencils, pens, or other objects used by others”.

They are also encouraged to bring food from home, to not drink water directly from the drinking taps by mouth and not to buy anything from street vendors.

In case any pupils display suspicious symptoms, they are asked to report it to the teacher, leave the school from the predetermined exit and head to the car or bus, observing the safety distances.

Pupils are also asked to not gather in crowds at the bus stop and not push each other when entering or exiting the bus.

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