Well the word is out – schools will not be extending the June holidays, at least for next week. On Tuesday, the Ministry of Health announced that schools will reopen on Monday, 29 June 2009 as scheduled. However, to slow down the spread of the H1N1 virus in the school community and in Singapore when school re-opens, MOE will issue a 7-day Leave of Absence (LOA) to all school staff and students returning from affected countries , on and after 22 June 2009, to stay away from school. There will also be stepped up precautionary measures and public education efforts in schools. For more details, see the full press release here.

This will go some way towards managing the spread of the virus through the community. However, many are still wondering if this simply buys us some time before more severe measures will need to be introduced. To add more gloom to the outlook, an infectious diseases expert has said that doctors will miss at least one in five H1N1 patients here because their symptoms will be so mild.

At Republic Polytechnic, the management were swift to act when nine cases of H1N1 were confirmed there – all first year students and several staff members of Republic Polytechnic have been told to stay away for seven days from Thursday. This move affects 4,500 students and 16 teachers and makes the polytechnic the first to adopt Ministry of Education measures aimed at preventing mass local transmission of the flu virus.

The measures implemented thus far will make some headway only if everyone – parents, teachers and students – abide by the guidelines and provide clear and honest details of their travel history in June. And this is something we cannot be completely sure of, particularly when history doesn’t bode particularly well for us.

 Six years ago, when SARS reared its ugly head, there were parents who flouted the rule by asking their children to lie about their travel history, and inconsiderate individuals who continued to frequent public places despite being ordered to stay away. And all this happened when the disease in question had proven to be more deadly than the one we are now battling.

So, come next week, will we see a repeat of such incidences and blatant acts of social irresponsibility? The odds against this don’t look good. For the past few days, school-based personnel have been scrabbling to contact parents to record their travel histories, and travel declaration forms have been flying out in cyberspace. Now what we need is honesty, and lots of it. And some way to catch those who are less than truthful. Going through individual passports page by page is too laborious an undertaking - in the absence of a major tracking exercise involving immigration records, employers’ statements and plenty of inter-agency coordination, it won’t be so straightforward prove that someone had indeed remained in Singapore.

 Let us hope that good sense and ethics will prevail over parents who are planning to tell a tale other than the truth – and in doing so, dice with illness and death -  so as not to have their children miss a few days of school.

Do you think the 7-day leave of absence ruling will help stem the spread of the virus throughout the community? What else can be done? Do share your thoughts below.

Useful sites to monitor:
http://www.moe.gov.sg/schools/influenza-a-h1n1/media-statements-precautionary-measures/
http://www.moh.gov.sg/mohcorp/default.aspx

Comments (2)

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written by Aka mum, June 25, 2009

I think we just cannot take any chances. To stop those kiasu parents who would rather lie that have their kids miss school, it makes more sense to make all schools close - then ALL will be on equal terms.

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It's really about Social Responsibility
written by Tom Tom, June 26, 2009

Agree~ and well put, let us hope good sense and social ethics will prevail over parents, as well as everyone who are planning to tell a tale other than the truth – and in doing so, dice with illness and death.

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