North Korea has ordered all the schools in the country to begin the new semester on September 1, amidst the ongoing coronavirus or COVID-19 pandemic, as per reports. The authorities are pretty much concerned about losing more time so they have decided to risk the safety of the school students by reopening the schools in just some days, a source have told the NK News.
The students who are going to display symptoms of coronavirus like high temperature will not be allowed to go home. Instead, they are going to be isolated and will continue studying while they will be monitored by teachers. As per the source, the schools will only need to report their concerns if seven percent of students of a class have fever of 37.5 degrees or higher.
Students Having COVID-19 Symptoms to Stay in Isolation and Study
The schools make the provincial, municipal, and county disease authorities aware, who might decide to shut down the institution. But rather than closing the students with high fever could be made to study in isolation. The health of the students is not a higher-ranked priority for the authorities, according to reports.
The parents are still concerned about the safety of their children and many of them are refusing to send their children to school as a part of them also want them to stay home. The source mentioned that even though the government stated that there are no coronavirus cases, people have mentioned that the crisis has caused a 'rash' of fever-like illness to surround them.
"Many parents are conflicted and unable to make clear decisions because of the concern that keeping their children out of school will negatively impact where their kids are placed after graduation," the source added as reported by the Express.
Temperature of Students to be Checked at Entrance
The students are going to be given their first temperature test at the school entrance and will be tested again inside classrooms. The source mentioned, "When students did their preparatory school day in the past, entire schools gathered in schoolyards before heading home. This time, students will only gather with others from the same class."
The entire school bodies are not going to gather together for attendance instead they will have their temperatures checked and go to class. The students of elementary and middle schools have been instructed to head to school alone, as per the source.
The school authorities have been asked to disinfect the premises by August 29. "Schools have already mobilized people and divided them up into groups to work on specific days so there won't be too many people at the schools at one time," the source mentioned.
