《TAIPEI TIMES》 Children return to class across Taiwan

By Sherry Hsiao / Staff reporter

Elementary, junior-high and high-school students yesterday returned to classrooms across Taiwan for the start of the new academic year.

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After a COVID-19 outbreak, schools nationwide, including public and private kindergartens, suspended in-person instruction starting on May 19, with many initiating an early summer vacation.

COVID-19 restrictions meant that people dropping off children at elementary schools yesterday were not allowed in the gates.

Several schools in the six special municipalities — Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung — arranged for new and returning students to enter at different times.

For example, to prevent crowds, Tung-bao Elementary School in Taichung’s Tanzih District （潭子） asked students in grades 2 through 6 to arrive before 7:40am, kindergarten students were asked to arrive between 7:40am and 8am, and first-grade students were asked to arrive after 8:20am.

There was increased traffic near schools, as many parents apparently eschewed public transport services to pick up and drop off children themselves.

The Environmental Protection Administration （EPA） on Tuesday said it instructed epidemic prevention and disinfection brigades across the nation’s 22 city and county administrations to work with local education authorities to complete the disinfection of 4,674 school campuses at the high-school level and below — including public kindergartens — as well as nearby public areas.

Athletics fields, hallways, restrooms and playgrounds were among the facilities that were disinfected, it said, adding that local schools helped to clean classrooms under the supervision of the Ministry of Education.

As of noon yesterday, 1,711 students in Taipei had taken “disease prevention leave” on the first day of the semester, 0.53 percent of the 319,675 students in the city who were expected to attend classes, Taipei Department of Education data showed.

The National Federation of Teachers’ Unions in a statement on Tuesday called for continued support from education authorities to prevent the spread of COVID-19 on campuses.

About 90 percent of teachers at elementary, junior-high and high-schools have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, the federation said, citing statistics from the Ministry of Education as well as local officials.

Authorities should arrange for the rest to be vaccinated as soon as possible and make plans for all educators to receive a second dose, the federation said.

To increase vaccination rates on campuses, the federation urged authorities to arrange for students aged 12 to 18 to be vaccinated soon.

Efforts to prevent COVID-19 on campuses must continue, it said, adding that authorities should ensure that supplies of masks, alcohol, thermometers, bleach, dining partitions and rapid testing kits remain available.

Additional reporting by CNA and Tsai Ya-hua

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES